Questions and Conclusions: Jan 22, 2006

[22 Jan 2006 | Sunday] 

Question- Am I the only person that loves that "Go Army" commercial where the black guy joins the helicopter crew? There's just something about it that gets me, and I think I've discovered what it is. So for a little background, the commercial follws this black guy as he walks into an airplane hangar. His boss tells him that he's going to like his crew cause they're all good guys. He gets there and someone questions whether he's worked with things that move this fast or not, which brings on the conclusive flash back of said black guy in an Army chopper doing a mission. It's a pretty point blank message: The Army will prepare you for anything. The thing is, I always just loved this tiny little detail. You see as our protagonist walks into the hangar and is introduced, the only person who greets him is the "other" black guy. "Guys, this is Jack (or whatever his name is)." (Now the only other black guy in the room steps forward)"Hi Jack, I'm Wendall." Most people don't notice shit like that, and maybe I'm just looking too hard, but why doesn't anyone else say hi? Or is it that black people when they see each other are more eager to extend a greeting? Why are there only two black guys there? And why not cast another black dude and have him say nothing? What kind of message are they trying to extend? The point of this is that that commercial always just struck me as funny, and maybe the message should be changed to: "The Army: Helping darkies get to places they wouldn't otherwise get to without us", because if you've seen it, they're only other commercial like that is of a mexican cat getting put onto a truck as a fireman. Hmmmm... food for thought. Question- Do you think that when John Foggerty wrote a new tune for his band, that he simply presented it to them with the following disclaimer, "This is just like 'Hey Tonight', but with different words"? -And more importantly, do you think the rest of Credence Clearwater Revival were okay with that? Were they excited? Do you think they even recognized that, for the most part, they were just playing the same tunes again and again?