CAUTION: INTELLECTUAL POWERHOUSE AHEAD
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
I came across this Yahoo! article while surfing about. United Airlines is going to air a 13-minute video depicting five military jobs (none of which are in a combat zone) to their passengers. So what. While speaking about the Pentagon's shortfall in their recruiting goals (which are intentionally set high) is discussed, one thing in particular sparked my interest. That was when Tom Bivins, who is a "professor" of media ethics at the University of Oregon, opened his face and said that the military's omission of production credits is "questionable". Also: "People need to realize they are being advertised to" said the smart-man.
Really, Tom? People need to know they are being advertised to? I nearly missed that fact when I tore into the United Airlines sack of peanuts, looked at the carpet, seat back, safety instructions, my own freaking ticket, napkins or tried to keep warm in a United Airlines blanket. I never would have known I was being advertised to in that aspect. Let's move on to the video, shall we?
Oddly enough the safety instructions given on some United flights are in a video form that have huge United Airlines splash screens associated with them. In the video called Today's Military I would be convinced that it pertained to the US military. Why? Only because while I am on an American carrier I don't usually think of Paraguay's military for some reason. Ok. Let's say I had missed that title, once I saw a couple of people wearing US military camouflage (by now even the retarded kid in 15A is screaming "Army! Army!") and administering vaccinations to impoverished Thai children, I am not thinking "Ug, a propaganda film for the continuation of Dr. Goebbels work!" or "Has Unit 731 made a comeback?" I am pretty sure at this point that it is the US military depicting one of five jobs that they have to offer according to this video. Furthermore, I don't give a rat's ass who they key grip was, who did the crappy gaffing job on "soldier number 4", who the sound guy was, where the film was shot, etc. Instead, I am thinking about the US military and those 5 of 200+ jobs they offer. Professor of Nitpickery is a more apt title.
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