Two Minutes Hate

I live! After what seems like forever (in these days of Tweets and constant Facebook updates, it must seem like an eternity to some)…finally a new post of substance¹, after long hiatus due to insane work deadlines (sure I can do what normal would take a few months and hammer it out in a couple of weeks), a bout with a deadly illness², a massive home construction project³, and a luxurious rock star-like two week vacation⁴, Gubbyblog is making a comeback.
On to the HATE:
Dramatizations in Commercials
I understand labeling reenactments and dramatizations on news and pseudo-news type programs where they reenact crimes or events. It is just a simple way of saying that it happened “something like this and these are actors and not the actual individuals…please don’t call the 1-800 crime line on our actors” (although I have heard that type of thing actually happens quite a bit. I also understand labeling something as a dramatization when something is reenacted very realistically just as part of journalistic responsibility. I don’t understand however all the scenes listed as dramatizations in commercials. Isn’t a commercial almost a dramatization by definition? But what really drives me insane is the rip-off products that list the most ridiculous content as a dramatization. Take Lipozene, for an example (I refuse to embed any of their videos because they piss me off and I am sure it is a total rip-off). I was actually a big fan of their “It’s not your fault that you’re fat” commercial from a few years ago because it made me crack up every time. However, I totally hate all their computer animations of fat on the body and then the giant pill opening and spraying the fat with molecules (it is at about the 55 second mark in the video in the upper right corner of their homepage). It is obviously a computer animated cartoon. Would anyone, anywhere actually confuse that with what the pill actually does? Was someone really mad that they didn’t get a two foot long pill that magically sprayed them with yellow dots? It always reminds me how over-cautious and litigious to the point of stupidity that our country can be at times.

Note – I do like the Windows 7 Was My Idea commercial where Steve says everything should work together. I’m sure it is done very tongue in cheek with Steve flashing back to a reenactment of his idea where he is much younger, much more muscular, and better looking. Makes me smile. That is the way to do a reenactment in a commercial.

End Hate

¹ Substance being a relative term here as I don't really think any of my posts have all that much substance because I am just not an interesting person. But at least it is closer to regular posting than I have had in a month.
² The ever deadly common cold.
³ OK, I just installed baseboards…about a year after I finished installing my hardwood floors (I never claimed to be much more than a lazy, worthless human being.
⁴ Said rock star vacation being my companies normal holiday shutdown which consisted of the above two points of being sick, installing baseboards, and more than a little shoveling of snow…Rock on!