Far be it from me to bite the hand that feeds me. Commercials are fine. They pay the freight. They pay my salary!
Sometimes it seems like there are too many, or we see the same ones for too long – but it’s a price I’m willing to pay for free on-air television.
OK, that covers the disclaimer. There are two commercials I have seen in the past 24 hours that are bothering me.
First is an ad for reverse mortgages. This is a method older people can use to extract some equity from their home while still living there. Whether it’s a good idea or not probably depends on your individual financial situation.
What bothers me is this new commercial features Jerry Orbach. He died last week. Maybe he’s not the perfect spokesman for a product anymore.
Sometimes the best intentions of the companies involved go wrong when tragedy strikes – but please, take the commercial off.
The second commercial is a tougher call, because it’s a pre-existing commercial for a product that’s probably great. It’s a commercial for family vacations at “Beaches,” the tropical chain of resorts.
I know they’re nowhere near Banda Aceh or Phuket, but a helicopter tracking shot of a family walking down a pristine beach gives me the willies at this point. It’s nothing “Beaches” has done, but maybe this isn’t a good time to advertise this way?
Tragedy changes us all. I wonder how many people will get married on 9/11 next time it comes on a weekend? Still, commercial enterprises have to be somewhat sensitive… or in these cases more sensitive.
My wife and I got married 9/14/02 – I was concerned that even being so close to the 1st 9/11 aniv. was going to be an issue, of course it had been planned well before the incident occured.