It’s still February, it’s still cold, and I still hate advertisements.  Not just a minor dislike but a really white hot hate.  Why  is it necessary that every building in every city that’s large enough to house a sporting event have a corporate sponsor.  I’m starting to believe that the American businesses are doing a lot better than we’ve been told.  Spending millions of dollars a year to have your name on an arena would piss me off a great deal if I were a stockholder.

So it’s February, the month with some really lame observances and a couple of so-so holidays.  Since my complaint today is with advertisers I must of course mention the upcoming Presidents Day.  I love that we still remember and celebrate our founding fathers, Lincoln, Washington, and others. It just seems to me that we’re getting a little redundant with these things.  If we have a Presidents Day why is there a need for individual observances for just a few. I’m realize that if we tried to eliminate Presidents Day every car salesman in the country would march on Washington.  It could be called The Million Salesmen March of 2013.

I wonder if our Presidents ever gave any thought to just how their likenesses and names would be prostituted for the good of the automobile industry and others.  The term “spinning in their graves” immediately comes to mind.

Now to the meat of this posting.  I was sitting at home last night minding my own business and attempting to watch one minute of TV without some annoying ad being shoved in my face.  Leave it up to some of our sneaky yet loveable Japanese businessmen to come up with this idea.  A car commercial for Honda where they have George Washington and Abraham Lincoln singing their theme song as a duet.  To say it was disrespectful and tasteless is an understatement. I wonder how those same Japanese businessmen would feel if we used the images of a few of their emperors to sell Domino’s Pizza or possibly women’s feminine products.

Have we in this country become so greedy that nothing is sacred.  That was rhetorical because we already know the answer.  The United States is losing it’s integrity and it’s soul.  We will disrespect absolutely anything regardless of it’s importance to make a buck.  Greed is a terrible thing and it’s something that infects almost all of us.  Money, Money, Money!

I could go on and on with this but it’s pointless.  You already know that its true because you’ve been raised with it and think it’s the norm.  I’m here to tell you it’s not.  Paying millions of dollars for a minute of Super Bowl time is outrageous and insidious all at the same time.  Everywhere you look are ads.  On every building, wall, road sign, and of course TV.  Thirty percent or more of your TV time is paid advertisements.

Propaganda and brainwashing are frowned upon when it’s a government or a religious cult doing it but totally permissible for every business in this country. We’re at the point where most of the music we walk around humming are commercial  theme songs.  They’ve taken  many of our greatest oldies and turned them into something they were never meant to be.  Shame and them and double shame on us for putting up with it. 

My rant is over and I wish February was over too.