Pet Peeve

Treadmill walking/jogging is very boring. S calls it the Dreadmill and I can agree with that, but it sure beats going outside in crappy weather; it's wintertime so there's a bunch of crappy weather going on.
I have to exercise; I cannot function normally without it. However, I have pushed not exercising beyond the point of comfort - I didn't exercise at all for two months from about 2 weeks before The 123 opened until somewhere after the middle of November. Unless you count being on my feet for 18 hours at a time and not sleeping for a couple of days in a row exercise. [My body doesn't think that counts as exercise.] It got to the point that I had a hard time moving when I woke up in the morning - I must've looked about 75 years old hobbling around trying to get moving.
This post is not supposed to be about exercise, but while I'm talking about it I will say I've been very consistent for about 3 weeks and I can move better. Not good, yet, but better. I've been spending time on the treadmill everyday and the only way to make something so mundane bearable is to numb the brain a bit: The TV works well for this.
In the past few months, I've spent even less time watching TV than I have spent exercising. I do that fairly often - just not watch TV. A few years ago I think I must've went about 2 years without seeing anything on the television. Sometimes it makes me look like an idiot when the entire room is discussing a plot or a character from a show that I've never even heard of, but I'm sure that's not the only time I've ever looked like an idiot so I don't let it bother me very much. I remember that length of time because I was in a dentist's office for a check-up and they had the TV going in the waiting room with some afternoon talk show on and I was aghast at the content: the language, the violence -physical and verbal- and the content. This was mid-afternoon in a public place with school age children and the show was not appropriate. I mentioned it to a couple of people and they just laughed, shrugged and blew me off as prudish (or stupid) and naive. The things we can get used to...
Anytime I go a length of time without watching TV I am always re-shocked at some of the crap that is broadcast so nonchalantly. It's getting worse; I don't think this is my imagination.
This time it's the drug commercials.
I have a problem with drug commericials in general. They are very good at telling you that you need this drug because it will make you stop sniffling. They then go on to tell you (because legally they have to) that the side effects could include itchy or watery eyes, stomach cramps, internal bleeding, severe brain damage, and death. And yet, with all those hideous side effects, people go to their doctors and ask for that medication because they have an annoying sniffle. They must or the drug companies wouldn't spend the money on advertising.
I think that's stupid.
I've laughed about the drug commercials for years (since they began to allow them on TV -it was illegal for drug advertisements to be on TV at all up until, what, about 10-12 years ago?), but I'm also shocked by the number of generally healthy adults on a regular regimen of prescription drugs. I'm pretty sure that just about everyone is on something. (That's another scary subject....)
The particular drug commercials that have me shocked this go-round with the TV are the ones for ED: Erectile Dysfunction. I'm not sure I've seen any of these since Bob Dole told us he had that problem. That's been, what, 10 years ago? (Oh, hell, that means my initial guesstimate of 10-15 years for TV drug advertising is woefully short - it must be more like 15-20). Bob Dole was quiet and tactful compared to the ads now. Now they don't leave any room for misunderstanding: the commercials are blatant and outspoken with no room for misunderstanding. Apparently, the ED drug market is burgeoning and competitive.
I haven't seen these commercials with my kids in the room, but if they're watching TV when I'm not there, surely they're seeing them, too. What do they think?
I will have to ask them.

Quit Smoking Ad from 1900

Strategic placement in advertising is apparently not a new phenomenon.

Here is a newspaper clipping from The Grafton Leader in July 1900 (yes, that's right, 1900):




I think it's interesting that the Insurance Company is listed right before the tiny ad for "No-To-Bac." I'll bet they sell life insurance.

Okay, putting cynicism aside -or at least pushing it to the backseat- it's a fascinating ad:

"To quit tobacco easily and forever, be magnetic, full of life, nerve and vigor, take No-To-Bac, the wonder worker that makes weak men strong."

These selling techniques must work because we are bombarded with the same messages in modern advertising. Today the wording is not quite so blatant, but it's the same thing, only with a shinier, brighter, louder delivery - subtlety that's harder to laugh about.

Fifty cents or One Dollar. That's a ton of money for 1900; I'm not sure how to figure it out in today's dollars, but it had to be a lot of money back then.


I've been going through old, old magazines and books and I've come across lots of interesting things. What I find most fascinating, though, is the consistency and persistence of advertising. Nothing, really, has changed in more than 100 years. The only real difference is the mode of advertising - there are a hundred, possibly a thousand or more, new ways to target an audience.
We are targeted with effective, time-tested, honed techniques.

It's no wonder we've become a consumptive (yes, I meant to use consumptive) society with a serious credit problem.


***edited to add:
I forgot to tell you where I found this paper and why I was looking at it.
I'll tell you more later, both here and on the Taylor County blog.