"She should support his love of Lord of the Rings, he should support her love of diet pills."
This is the line that prompted me to start this blog in the first place. A session of later night telly viewing (that's TV to you non-Aussies) was a nice relaxing thing until an ad for The Marriage Ref came on and I was hit with the above comment.
The WTF metre reached eleven. What the hell was that I just was witness to?
The place I'd begin to explain this probably isn't where many would expect. You see, I am a proud and strong geek girl. I have been for many years now. Pictures exist of me dressed up as a Christmas Klingon somewhere (if my stuff wasn't in transit between Australia and Canada I might consider posting one, but right now that's impossible, so don't ask), and for years I've played MUDs and World of Warcraft. Heck, I even have pretentions of writing the Next Big Fantasy Novel someday, so the notion of loving Lord of the Rings is one I can totally embrace.
LotR is one of those epic stories that goes into themes of friendship and perseverance, with the far too human concepts of avarice and betrayal portrayed by all too likable characters. One of the main complaints I hear about fantasy and speculative fiction is that people can't relate to the characters as they're not human. When it's sci-fi the complaint is that they're "little green men with ray-guns". With LotR the main complaint I hear is that "it's little men with hairy feet!" Imagination and empathy, dear chaps. Geez. If I can relate to any given male hero in any mainstream movie while not being possessed of a penis of my own, it's not that much more of a stretch to feel the story of a pair of Hobbits on a quest to save their world from evil.
Uh. Yeah. So as you can see, it wasn't the LotR avowal that made me boggle.
In my last entry I made reference to the different ways Australia and North America deal with the obesity problem. Now, the diet pills comment above was meant as a funny observation on a light hearted marriage relationships show, but for me it was an underscoring of a huge difference between Down Under and Up Above.
In Australia the media makes a huge deal out of the Obesity Problem. Apparently there's No Greater Threat To Australia's Youth Today! Really? Hyperbole much? Every other day there's a new article on the Problem on one of our current affairs shows, or on one of the newscasts, often stating that Australia now has the highest rate of obesity in the Western World (per population). The commercial breaks are full of government sponsored campaigns designed to get people out and active and getting kids away from the video games and back out into the fresh air (often followed by an ad for McDonalds, but I digress). Everywhere you go are sport stores and recreational reserves, and it's a big thing for big businesses to offer sponsorships to community projects designed to get people active and off the couch.
Here?* I've never seen so many pharmaceutical company ads in my life! Apparently my whole life will be brighter if I take Viagra TM (*snicker*), and I'll be eternally late to things if I let the husband take Cialis. If I had C.O.P.D. or any number of life threatening diesases there's a pill for that (Talk to your doctor and see if Brilliantnewpillophen is right for you!), and if I have any kind of pain there's a pill for that too! I'm sure that sometime I'll be sitting here, minding my own business and there'll be an ad for Middle Toe Pain Relievers.
"Stub your middle toe this morning? That sucks! It puts a dampener on your whole day! Just take Midtoehappirin (TM) and you'll be back in your heels and dancing the foxtrot again in no time!"
It feels at times like there's a demand for miracles in a box, and this unnamed woman's love of diet pills emphasised that. I can understand the love of LotR. There are books, movies, commentaries and so many other things to buy, talk and appreciate about anything of that ilk. However to me, diet pills only serve one function, and the concept of being as obsessed by these things as one can be LotR just seems mental to me.
Pharmaceutical companies aren't allowed to advertise in Australia as freely as they are up here**, it's illegal. So this has been a bit of an eye-opener for me.
* I haven't travelled around here as much, and I realise that the outside of the country essentially shuts down for a while thanks to the piles of snow that obliterate everything. Yet from what I've seen of Canada so far, many sporting fields and the kinds of facilities I'm used to are affiliated with children, and there aren't anywhere near as many as I saw back in even the more industrial parts of Melbourne.This isn't to say it doesn't exist, but that it's simply not as obvious here as it was back in Aus. Yet I have also seen that Canadians camp and undertake outdoor activities much more readily than Australians do. It's just that the Aus media are much more insane about The Obesity Problem (worst thing ever!!!!) than I have witnessed here so far.
** I lump Canada and the US into this whole thing, as the TV stations are intermingled.
Oh just wait til you see the ads for Restless Leg Syndrome. Apparently many people are suffering insomnia because their legs aren't sleepy at night. Instead of, you know, talking a walk or something, there's a pill for that!
ReplyDeleteIt used to be illegal to advertise drugs like this, the law was changed maybe 10-15 years ago, and I think the change was not at all for the better.
Oooh yeah, I've seen that one! The fact the pharmaecutical companies can do that here is mindblowing. The closest we had were the ads where they'd vaguely tell you about a product without naming it or saying outright what it was supposed to do, then directed you to a website ("askyourdoctor.com.au", I believe it was). It eventually got pulled because it was just plain cheeky.
ReplyDeleteThe sheer range of stuff these ads are for blows my mind. I wonder how many doctors get hypochondriacs coming in after a new pill ad goes to air saying they needed it? "My legs keep jerking and I find it hard to breathe!" "Perhaps you should stop sleeping with your head between your legs, sir."
I also feel for the people who see these ads but simply can't afford the medicine.