I'm Back!

     After months of neglect I'm back writing random observations of the things around me.  What I keep seeing as I now relax form a very busy Spring is a preponderance of TV ads that are more than the usual buy this toilet paper because it is softer, or this cat food because it tastes better(how would you know?).  Even the ads for other TV shows have become, what I consider increasingly obnoxious, more and more toward our dark side than not.  Then, once we get into the political ads all hell breaks loose.
      Most of you who follow my ramblings know that I am what used to be called a "Bleeding Heart Liberal".  In fact, I plan to frequent the OC Fair this month and get a license plate holder that says just that to display on my American made Ford Mustang.  At the same time I am also a deep believer in this country and am more optimistic than pessimistic, actually a jingoist as many of my friends would put it.  Which brings me to the ads for the election for President of the United States by both parties. 
     So many people on both sides complain that running negative ads is bad, yet when the campaign committees run focus groups on the effectiveness of the ad they almost always get feedback that the ads work.  If they didn't work then they wouldn't invest millions of dollars on producing and running them.  Complain all you want people, but you like them.  The name calling, half truths, misrepresentations, sound bites and innuendo are great stuff.  We eat it up and use it to further our arguments with neighbors and friends.  We use it as facts we can recite to bolster our positions and we get lathered up when a new one hits the screen.  It doesn't matter what the ads say we will believe the ads that run the most often and shout out the loudest. 
     What do advertising people believe?  "If you say something often enough and loud enough, people will perceived it as truth".  The present generations will believe as truth anything from the Internet.  Oliver Stone has made  good living off of revisionist history in film drama.  Not documentaries but fiction loosely based on facts. 
     So, my message here is two fold;  Don't believe everything you hear or see and look at actions and decide where you stand on the actions of our politicians, the effectiveness of our toilet paper and until you have actually tasted that cat food, let your cat decide.