12/7/05

CapitalOne Commercial: Not in MY wallet.

Stuck in the world of bitter sophomoric office games, there's a series of commercials begging the question, "What's In Your Wallet?". It's a good thing this piece of Push is relieved by a second vignette featuring out of work Nordic Raiders. The alternate airing of both means that we get a breather between frat-boy stunts.

In these particularly distasteful commercials, the space which is similar to the one most of us occupy during our 9 to 5 workday is reduced to the high school hallways where witty upperclassmen mock the eager-to-please and overweight freshman. If the comparison to high school antics seems a bit harsh, consider the same scenario, four years into the future, where the unwitting Pledge suffers the scorn of more senior frat members. Same scenario, different schoolyard.

What this advertising message conveys is that these ridiculously hurtful and rigid social structures are not only repeated well into an "adult" corporate setting, but that it is, at least on some Dilbert level, deserved. What's worse, in these ads it's encouraged. Openness and a willingness to learn are mocked, while the lazy and spiteful reign supreme.

I doubt that even Dilbert would approve.

No comments: