T.V. Comments

I have watched more t.v. in the last few days than I have in a long time. I was struck with two major things--Hummer ads are really selling insecurity and Steve from Blue's Clues is a very professional guy.
first off---Hummer ads. I saw two ads from hummer during some show I was watching. Not my normal discovery channel/history channel/so you think you can dance stuff, but something where hummer felt they could get some eyeballs that would pay. Anyway, I was struck by how demeaning the commercials were. I saw the one with the woman and her son at the playground where an other kid cuts in line to the slide and she tells the other mom "it was *insert kid's name here* turn," and the other mom says "now it's not," or something equally rude. Then the mom goes and trades her car in for a hummer and the write over when she gets in the front seat was, "Get your girl on." Then there was the one with the guy at the grocery store buying greens and tofu and there is a guy behind him with charcoal and a slab of meat. He goes and trades in his car for a hummer and the write over was something like "Reclaim your masculinity." OK, it may not have been that blunt, but it was close. I was absolutely shocked that there were marketers who thought that these ads would make someone say, "Yeah, I need to plop down $$$ because I'm passive aggressive and I need to run over someone or something to prove my self worth."
Second--Steve from Blue's Clues is a true professional.
I don't know how many people out there know about Steve's drama and why he left Blue's Clues. The short story is that he had been on it forever, worked tirelessly for the show and all the stuff that came out from it (The boys have too many toys that start out with "Hi, this is Steve!"), decided to move onward and upward (he was co-producing by the time he quit), and nick Jr. asked some crazy things like could he change his NAME. His name is Steven Burns, but they wanted the rights to "Steve" from Blue's Clues and tried to sue him over it! Anyway, when they transitioned to "Joe" (played by Donovan Patton, not Joseph anything), Steve did a three part transition story arc where he introduced his little brother, Joe, one where he taught Joe how to play Blue's Clues and then one where he told everyone that he was going to college and Joe was going to be moving in and playing with all of them. Watching them with the boys, I was struck by how un-drama-ful they were. It was upbeat, lively, and normal Blue's clues. No rolling of eyes, no lack of energy by Steve, no "free at last" little dance or anything. It was as if it was the most friendly parting of ways that is out there in kids programming. You should check out his partially bitter website to see how friendly the break really was www.steveswebpage.com
And no, I don't have anything better to do.
so there.
And I just realized that Steven Burns reminds me of Gorjus.