Full-Circle

HappyDay Farms does not pay to advertise; we don't have to.

Full-Circle

You are watching television, and a commercial comes up on the screen; what do you do?

a) Watch closely; take notes, if necessary.

b) Check it out while also glancing at the sporting green.

c) Get up and use the facilities or perform some other critically important task.

d) Mute the volume.

e) Hit the forward button on your DVR, four times for a Giants game, as many as eighteen if you are watching a film.

There are three equally correct answers in my world: c, d and e. Because they are essentially the same thing, it doesn’t matter which you choose; the idea is simply to refuse to acknowledge that the commercials exist.

I abhor ads with a passion that borders on unhealthy, except for the fact that it is so easy to avoid them. As far as I am concerned, that is why God invented DVR. I don’t even know what the letters stand for, but I know how to use it.

By allowing the viewer to pause the action, thus accruing time that can be then applied to skipping the ads, the manufacturer of the device recognized a need, and acted upon it. In doing so, it allows consumers to collectively thumb their noses at a multi-billion dollar industry.

Let's go for a spin around the block, why don't we? Full-circle.

An industry was created to convince consumers to purchase specific commodities. The actors get paid to act out skits which portray products in a favorable light, and we are supposed to rush out and buy said product.

The public knows the actors don’t represent reality, but it is supposed to believe that the product does what the actors say it does. And we get to see the commercial daily for the rest of the season. The commercials during the Super Bowl now cost five million dollars for a thirty second ad. 

That’s a lot of loot to pay for a crock of baloney.

I despise hypocrisy and the advertising industry smacks of it. Hammering McDonald’s ads into the minds of our youth, helps nail the lid of the coffin securely in place, for those who make unhealthy life choices as far as food consumption goes. Kids are more impressionable than adults, so let's get to them early. That way the kids can apply pressure to Mom and Dad.

Research indicates (!) that advertising pays off. McDonald’s spends millions in commercials to get people to flock to its establishments, even though McDonald’s is not a new enterprise and nothing changes, not even that which is served, long after it has been left sitting on the counter.

The reality is that if a burger and fries are left to their own devices, they will not change in appearance. They will not mold; they will not shrivel up and turn nasty. They will not attract ants. They will not do what food has always done since the beginning of time because they are not really food-they are simply substance.

How does McDonald’s get around this? It doesn’t have to because the public has bought into the concept. Let’s face the fact that it’s easier to pack the kids off for McDonald’s, than it is to whip up a batch of home-made macaroni and cheese.

In all fairness, much of the time both mom and dad are working at low-paying jobs and don’t have time to prepare home-cooked, healthy meals for their kids. Besides, these folks are never going to be able afford organic food anyway.

Just imagine if the billions spent on making commercials, and the billions spent on advertising, were applied to the simple act of feeding everyone, healthy, organic food. I know it sounds ridiculously naive and Pollyanna-like, and there’s no money to be made off of fresh produce, except that earned by the farmer, so it will never fly.

I still wonder why.