Monday, October 8, 2012

"State of Apathy" would be a better title



My original plan for this post was to go on another rant about how sexist television commercials are, using this State Farm Ad as Exhibit 450,000 or so.  After all, the female character here is portrayed as a really, really stupid naive little twit.  Not to mention that she doesn't seem the least concerned that there's this steaming wreck of a car sitting right there in front of her; she just bleats "hey, what's up" as if it's not even there.  Personally, I would have gone with "Oh My God, what happened are you OK?"  But that's just me, and if you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know I'm kind of odd that way.

But one thought lead to another, and I found myself concentrating more on the accident victim's reaction.  Ok, so it's pretty clear that he wasn't actually in the vehicle when it was totaled.  I get the idea that it's a hit and run deal.  And it must have happened very recently.  Don't you think that the guy's response is just a little too nonchalant here?  He acts like he views the destruction of his car as nothing more than a slight annoyance, if not a great excuse to try out this awesome new State Farm App he's got.  "Oh, I'm just using this cool App to diagram this horrific accident which rendered my car a worthless, smoking piece of metal, yawn."

Looking at it this way, the female character's "Oh that's nice hey I've got a date with a guy I met on the internet he's a French model" makes a lot more sense.  She's talking to an emotionally vacant guy, and she responds by being emotionally vacant herself.  There's hardly a reason for her to be more upset about the wreck than the car's owner, right?

If the guy had shown even the slightest hint that he had actually been involved in, witnessed, or was in any way the victim of an accident (seriously, even walking outside and seeing your car with a new dent in the bumper justifies more than what this guy is giving me) I could go the Sexist Image of the Clueless, Thoughtless, Self-Absorbed Woman route.  But I just can't past the guy's weird non-reaction.  Like I said, I'm odd that way.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 8, 2012 at 9:07 PM

    He never says that it was his car. He might be recording a neighbor's accident to blackmail them into paying him or he'll go to the insurance company with fabricated evidence that the neighbor was at fault. His nonchalant-but-smug manner almost begs that to be what's really going on.

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    1. John F JameleOctober 9, 2012 at 5:15 AM

      Wow, I had problems with the Publish Comment option today- I erased yours accidentally, then erased my reply, and couldn't get it back, weird...

      Anyway, I originally thought this guy might be an agent, who just HAPPENED to be recording an accident that takes place in his neighborhood, or at least the neighborhood of a friend who would not be surprised to see him there. But the accident is a very recent one- were is the car's owner? Did he go to the hospital after crying out "State Farm is There!" to summon the agent?

      I still think the guy's attitude- and the girl's, too- is really strange.

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  2. John F JameleOctober 9, 2012 at 5:10 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. DreadedCandiru2October 9, 2012 at 6:59 AM

    It's like they should change their slogan to "Insurance for people who are dead inside."

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  4. RogueFiccerOctober 12, 2012 at 1:28 PM

    The 'victim' is clearly unaffected by the fact the car was smashed and is no longer going to be able to get him around, which means he's no one I can identify with and State Farm needs to let me know why I should care about someone who can afford to be that blase about their car being smashed. Also, so very sexist.

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