There’s a commercial for Royal Caribbean where the daughter of the family doesn’t smile. See here.
Why doesn’t she smile? It seems like she used to smile but doesn’t anymore. Do 13 year old girls or however old she is not smile? I don’t recall that from when I was a 13 year old boy, and it’s not like she looks like some grouchy Goth chick or something.
I do not know any girls that age nor do I have kids, so maybe this is really obvious to you parents out there…but not to me.
(And let’s not discuss the genius that thought “Lust For Life” was a good musical choice for this commercial. I guess nobody at Royal Caribbean knew what the song was really about).
The schtik is that she doesn’t smile at her parents, or where her parents can see, or in response to anything her parents do.
I was totally like that at 13. There was no Goth back then, and I probably wouldn’t have been one if there were, but I didn’t smile at the fam anyway. I was IN TOO MUCH EXISTENTIAL PAIN, plus they were always embarrassing me.
13 year old girls are going through, ahem, lots of changes, and are often kind of weird. (Based on n=2). I also saw this ad as perhaps saying that this girl didn’t want to be caught dead with her parents, and so didn’t want to smile and show them she was actually enjoying herself with them.
This is base on two daughters, one of whom went on a cruise with us at 14. I can’t speak of 13 year boys besides me, and I was absolutely charming at that age.
One thing I’ve had to learn is how to work out when 13-year-old girls would be smiling if only for all the reasons they have to not smile (details of the latter very much not my concern ). It’s so much easier, if sometimes disconcerting, to teach the 20% who actually smile.
Meh–so boys smile and talk at 13. They sure don’t at 14 and on up until about 18 (we’re at 16 now, so I’m not sure about the 18).
Girls do it all a bit earlier. I think (IMS) that the girl does smile briefly in the commercial and the parents comment on it, thereby ensuring no more smiling for some time to come.
You joke, but my son (15) made a sign out of cardboard and green electrical tape last week because he was bored. It has a little string to hang around his neck and everything. It says:
Will work for praise.
I’m still trying to work out how I feel about that.
Because being a teenager on vacation with your parents sucks?
When I was that age, I got dragged along to Colonial Williamsburg. “Yes Mom, I WOULD rather listen to Master of Puppets on my Sony Walkman than some jerk talk about making a wagon wheel.”
That was my first thought, but the voiceover in the commercial clearly implies that she never smiles, not that she isn’t smiling because of the vacation. “We’ve come to the Caribbean in search of something this family rarely sees…”
Speaking as a former 13-year-old, I can state that the reason that girl is not smiling is that she would much rather be doing, oh, I dunno, ANYTHING AT ALL IN THE @^!%ING WORLD than going on a cruise with her parents.
That’s my reaction every time I see this commercial. Makes me want to smack that sour look off of her face and scream, “DO YOU KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO HAVE THIS KIND OF VACATION!?” Little bitch.
This made me laugh out loud. And what does it say about me as a mother that I want to make one FOR my 16 year old son? And forcibly hang it on him…
Of course the girl in the commercial doesn’t appreciate being on the cruise–why would she? She’s 13–her parents provide, she consumes. Such is the thought process (if it’s thought of at all) for most kids. Nothing wrong with that. Frankly, a child’s gratitude being the motive for obedience etc would be creepy, IMO. Unless this cruise was HER dream, she had no say in the choosing, the booking, the time of departure etc. For all we know, she is missing out on THE social event of her life. Yes, 13 y/o social events don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, but try telling that to a 13 y/o.
The message that I get out of it is that if you have surly and mean children you should punish them by making them spend a week on a floating shopping mall instead of doing something cool.
). It’s so much easier, if sometimes disconcerting, to teach the 20% who actually smile.