Saturday, February 16, 2008

Occupational Hazards

I'm in the midst of grading a large stack of student essays, 80 of them, each analyzing an advertisement of the student's choice. While on the whole they're mercifully intelligent and interesting, they're bumping me up against some occupational hazards.

1) I stink. Currently the dominant scent is Calvin Klein's Euphoria, but I'm sure the top and bottom notes will become more complex as I page through more perfume ads (they're stapled to the papers) and pick up that weird mix of cologne and eau de colored ink.

2) I had to google the term "lipstick party" to see if it's the same as a "rainbow party." In case you were wondering too, the answer is yes. If you're wondering what a rainbow party might be, well, I've kindly done the work for you (but don't follow the link if you have delicate sexual sensibilities or are prone to moral panic). The ad that prompted this high-brow research is from Cointreau's Be Controversial series. (Warning: Cointreau's site is based on Flash-for-beginning-readers; it's excruciatingly slow. The ad here gives you the flavor of it, so to speak.)

3) I learned from this ad that I had my babies a few years too soon.


To think we could've at least taken turns!

4) I'm immune to ads after all this analysis. That's why I'm off to the kitchen to mix me a nice, cold cocktail.

3 comments:

Smirking Cat said...

Most ads give me lots of fodder for making fun of them. It seems they grossly underestimate intelligence, then again, I look around at the general population, and maybe it's right on par...

Sungold said...

I suppose that's because ads aren't targeting our rational faculties. They're aiming straight at the reptilian brain ... where we don't have much advantage over, say, cats.

Sugarmag said...

It just goes to show how removed from popular culture I am, because I had never heard of a rainbow party or a lipstick party. My biggest concern about such a party is all of those girls sharing their saliva. Great way to spread a virus, I hope no one is sick Ewww. I have to confess that I kind of like the lipsticked lips in the ad. I know I know, but the colors are pretty. Also, I really like Cointreau. Yum!