I've been seeing a commercial lately for an SUV, (the Nissan Pathfinder, I believe), that I can't quite figure out. The ad opens with two guys in faux-outdoorsy plaid clothes, stocking caps, and chin stubble in a wilderness setting. One pseudo-rugged guy dumps a few grains of rice into a pot of boiling water and announces, unhappily, "Well, I guess that's the end of it." In the next scene, one of the guys catches a beetle and drops it into his mouth as the other guy looks on, horrifed. The commercial closes with the two guys in their Nissan Pathfinder driving in a deserted area and encountering a family in their Nissan Pathfinder, complete with snotty little kids watching cartoons in the back seat. One of the kids holds a bag of tortilla chips up to the window as the family drives away.

The message, of course, is that the Nissan Pathfinder is a tough and versatile vehicle, ideal for rugged backwoodsmen and adventurous families alike. But I have a question: how stupid do you have to be to go into the wilderness without sufficient food, especially if you are driving an SUV with enough space to carry several weeks' worth of supplies? Furthermore, if you ran out of food and had an SUV at your disposal, would you start eating bugs, or would you hop in your SUV and drive somewhere to get food?

Attention prospective Nissan Pathfinder buyers: do not buy a Nissan Pathfinder unless you want people to think you are stupid and/or have snotty kids.

I also have some questions about the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's commercials for the new $20 bills. I've seen two of these so far: one featuring a bespectacled guy getting a new twenty from an ATM and becoming so overjoyed at his good fortune that he buys two bouquets of flowers and gives one to a stranger. In the other one, the same bespectacled guy gets a new twenty back as change at a music store, (what did he pay with? Does he carry C-notes around?). He spins the bill on his finger and rolls it across his shoulders like a Harlem Globetrotter, to the delight of the other customers, who, being residents of Commercial Land, applaud his prowess. (Real-world customers would have cursed the bespectacled guy and shoved him out of the way for holding up the line.)

I don't know how many of our tax dollars these ads cost, but they are slick, high-quality productions. Why was this necessary? The goal of a slick, high-quality commercial is normally to convince the viewer to buy something, (Nike shoes), do something, (quit smoking), or think something, (Candidate Smith won't raise taxes). But what, exactly, is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing trying to get us to buy, do, or think? We have to use the new bills whether we like them or not; the only purpose of these ads is to spread basic information: we've changed the twenty. Here's what the new bill looks like. So why not just stick a picture of the new bill on the screen and have an narrator point out its new features?

+posted by Lawrence @ 10/20/2003 04:19:00 PM