Airborne Narcissism

 

This is what we know about Kelly Rowland:  She sees herself as a Superstar Super-Influencer Supermom who is very very eager to attend what might as well be called the KELLY Rowland family reunion so that she can fling herself about as if she's the center of the universe and the only real reason to even HAVE a family reunion, but ONLY if she can armor herself against the germs of the Non-Influencer Nobodies who happen to share her DNA.  She is, after all, Kelly Rowland, Superstar Super-Influencer Supermom. 

So thanks to Airborne, the supporting characters of Kelly Rowland's life are graced by Kelly Rowland's presence, and she'll make damn sure everyone is aware of it by trying to be everywhere all at once, no doubt live-streaming the entire event for her audience of I'm Not Even Going To Look It Up Many mouth-breathers on Tiktok or YouTube or Wherever.   Because we're all just background noise in the long-running Saga of Kelly Rowland, Legend in her Own Mind.  

 

Another Obnoxious Rinvoq Commercial? Check!

 

I don't know about you, but there's very little I care about less than rich people having lives which seem to consist entirely of safaris, beaches and ski resorts be interrupted by frequent trips to the g--d--- bathroom.  The idea that some pharmaceutical company may have set aside research into drugs that might someday cure Alzheimer's or Type I Diabetes in order to pump money into removing an annoyance from entitled brats like the horrible, horrible people who infest these ads makes me physically sick. 

I mean, wear a damn Depends under your $2000 ski gear, you ridiculous knobs.  

A Friday morning rant from an angry boomer with a blog?  CHECK!

PreserVision Commercials are weird

 

Every single one of them portray panicky Senior Citizens who have decided that they are about to go blind because of some eye condition they may or may not get because they are old but are then "relieved" to learn that there's these over-the-counter drops they can take to reduce their chances of, um, going blind.  It's like telling someone that if they don't drink water they'll die of dehydration, but here's a quick and easily obtainable solution:  Water.  

Meanwhile, can we please stop wasting time and start tackling real problems faced by Seniors?  Like Robot Attacks, for example.   It's nice that Old Glory Insurance is available, but how about some preventive measures?

Another Blast from the Past with a Progresso Soup Commercial from 1999

 

In this vintage ad, a guy at the office is perfectly happy with his bowl of soggy noodles in salty water for lunch, because he's been eating this stuff since he was a kid and didn't realize that his mother was constantly too hungover to put together a decent meal.  Again.  So it's become kind of a comfort food for him.  I just wonder where the saltines are (as if there's not enough sodium in a can of Campbell's Used To Be Something Resembling Pasta Condensed Soup Product already.)

He's perfectly happy- that is, until some nosy coworker barges in to condescendingly "remind" him that he's an "adult" now and "adults" don't eat Campbells because they've developed taste buds and realize that (despite the salt) there is absolutely no taste to Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup.  Turns out that once he reached a certain age, he was supposed to switch to Progresso, which as near as I can tell is exactly the same thing except with less water and bigger chunks of soggy, saturated vegetables which may have been nutritious when they were sealed into those cans months earlier but now have only slightly less liquid content than the water they are sitting in.  It's still tasteless swill and not at all a practical meal to consume at one's desk, but it's what Grown Ups are supposed to eat So There.

I have no idea why this woman feels entitled to tell her coworker what he's "supposed" to be eating for lunch; if she is really bothered by his consumption of canned soup, I'd think it would have more to do with it stinking up the breakroom and constantly leaving nasty residue in the common microwave.   At which point, she might suggest he make the soup at home in the morning and carry it to work in a thermos like a Good Boy.  Or, if she were a real friend, she'd suggest he eat something that will carry him through dinner- like a sandwich and a piece of fruit.  Best of all, she could just mind her own damn business and stop pushing her preferred brand of soup at people.  At this point, I'm just imagining that these two ended up getting married because she decided that was the only way she could get him to act like her own personal version of an Adult Man  in every situation. 

Pluto TV is PROUD to be part of the problem

 

Multiple problems, actually...

America has never been fatter or less mobile than it is in 2024.  "Binge watching" and "Channel Surfing" has replaced walking and generally being outdoors as our nation's favorite pastime (today so called because time passes even when you are doing nothing.)  And it's not about aesthetics- being overweight is linked to literally HUNDREDS of preventable illnesses.  Heart Disease, Cancer, and Strokes- all strongly linked to obesity- are three of the top four causes of death in the United States.  The other one is COVID which- guess what?- is far more dangerous if you are carrying an excess of adipose tissue. 

Americans have never felt more socially isolated (let's just call it Lonely) than they do in 2024.  Might have something to do with texts replacing face to face conversations, the internet replacing human contact, zoom meetings replacing...well, you get it.  And it's starting earlier and earlier - just check out how many preteens keep themselves glued to electronic best friends these days.  And know what more and more people are using to soothe the pain of isolation?  Cheap, processed, highly palatable chemicals disguised as Food Product.  Which is the perfect thing to binge on while you're already bingeing on television.

This commercial is like if Marlboro made an ad featuring a farm "harvesting" black lungs and played it off as "funny."  All in the service of Capitalism, I guess.  And the people who are applauding this garbage in the comment section?  Yeah, you guys suck, too.  It's bad enough to be played - you don't have to appreciate the company that's encouraging you into an early grave. 

Temu's "Shop like a Billionaire" Superbowl Ad is a celebration of mindless indulgence

 

Is Temu just Chinese for "Amazon," or what?  I mean, it doesn't seem to be offering anything that Amazon didn't "gift" civilization with more than a decade ago- a really quick way to make impulse buys of cheap crap produced by child labor with the touch of a screen.  I guess Temu just concentrates on all of the amazing "crafts" and clothes that are being disgorged from factories stretching from Manchuria to Senegal?  The very best that tiny little hands can sew and stitch and nail together?

"Shop like a Billionaire" sounds like "shop like money means nothing to you," which sounds cool but for the vast majority of us, money is actually a pretty finite asset that we have to spend carefully to get us from month to month.  Making it super-easy to buy stuff doesn't magically put more of it in our pockets.  Some of us have to actually pay our debts; it sounds like the only billionaire* Temu wants us to shop like is that guy who used to be President of the United States.

And I'm no worshipper of small businesses, but this has to be the most anti-small business, anti- "shop locally" commercial I've ever seen.  Want something available at the store down the street?  Buy a slightly cheaper-at-point-of-contact-but-not-cheaper-in-the-long-run version from your phone and get it sent to you from the other side of the planet at enormous cost TO that planet.  Because that's what a billionaire would do, I guess. 

*not actually a billionaire, like, ever. 

eTrade, Pickleball, the Superbowl, and a world of Dumb.

 

Hey look eTrade is at it again- exploiting toddlers willing to be exploited by their disgusting greedy parents to sell a brokerage service.  Oh, the hilarity. 

In reality, this is another slightly-amusing idea long since beaten into the ground nevertheless resurrected to be turned into a thirty-second ad to be played during the most overrated sporting event of the year: small children being manipulated by a combination of awful parents, an awful ad agency, and and awful CGI to generate yuks from the mouth-breathers in the audience who wonder why the stream of rib-splitting Funny is constantly being interrupted by some Sports Thing which itself is being regularly interrupted by Taylor Swift Sightings.

Anyway, here are some kids trying to play Pickeball because Pickleball is a craze right now, I guess.  And use eTrade.  For Reasons.