A lot of you probably think my heart is made of tungsten what with my miserable misanthropic posting style, but dammit I get all depressed when I see that one census commercial.
You know the one with the young diner waitress who can’t get day care for her kid so she has to bring him to work creating all kinds of heart-wrenching awkward situations. The anguished apologies to the customers. The child sitting alone at the table bawling. And then to top it all off, the manager showing his displeasure with the whole ordeal by chiding the poor waitress in front of all the customers. During which the child, who has stopped crying, has a look on his face that shows concern for his mommy. The only person in the world looking out for him.
Oh man, you census people are bastards for green-lighting that commercial. I know you really want us to fill out the forms and all but between that and the nice country couple’s barn burning down, I’m gonna have to “Super Size” my Zoloft prescription.
I hereby request that everyone attach a note to their completed census forms: “Please provide more day care and less exploding firehoses in my community”.
Bastards.
Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you. Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.
I agree- this has to be the worst ad campaign ever. What do you expect from our government? I think they should have used “Stewart” from the Ameritrade ads. Humor is probobly more effective then scare tactics or depressing ads.
Zette
“If I had to live your life, I’d be begging to have someone pop out both my eyes. Just in case I came across a mirror.” - android209 (in the Pit) Zettecity
Voted “Most Empathetic”- can you believe that?
I heard a good one on the Spanish radio station yesterday morning.
Little boy (guessing 4 or 5 from the voice) wakes up in the middle of the night. He wakes up his dad and asks him to read him a story. The dad tells him that he has to get up in 2 hours to go to work and to ask the mommy. The little boy wakes up the mommy and asks her if the daddy can read him a story.
:::Then they cut to all the census stuff.
Then back to the little boy and dad. The dad is obviously tired, still sleepy, yawning, but he’s reading the little boy a story (you can hear him turning the pages). Then after a lengthy pause the little boy asks “Daddy, how can you read this with your eyes closed?”
I don’t know what that had to do with the Census but it was an awfully cute commercial. And, it was much funnier than what I just wrote.
Work is fine for killin’ time, but it’s a shaky way to make a living.
I’d like one where a bunch of gangs are rioting & them come after the cops & when the cops pull their guns, they don’t have any guns cuz they couldn’t afford them.
There’s a census PSA on the radio aimed at Native Americans with background music of Indian women doing a chanted version of the 7th cavalry’s “Gary Owen,” that made me go “huh?” massively. How about a Klesmer cover of the “Horst Wessel” song?
Heh, Otto. I was thinking the same thing when I saw it. I kept expecting Alex and his droogs to jump out and initiate a bit of the ol’ “ultraviolence”.
You know, that one really irks me. School districts and individual schools get funding based on attendance. For that reason they have to take attendance every day and keep records. The state and the local school boards know exactly how many children to plan for, they certainly do not rely on the stupid dang census. Pops change way too quickly for that. I guess in the brave new world when a centralized government administers all our money it will be different.
I’m sure that there are all kinds of wonderful reasons why we should fill out and return the form, and I filled ours out and returned it, but when we are downright lied to it about why they need the thing it makes me very suspicious.
The commercial with the firefighters irks the hell out of me.
[rant] The Census Bureau makes it seem like the federal government actually gives money to the fire service. Newsflash: They don’t! Police departments have been getting money for years to “fight crime.” In 1999, Law Enforcement recieved over $11 billion. The fire service got $32 millon. Everyone is paranoid that their house might get broken into or they’re going to get mugged. No one ever thinks that their house might catch fire. Reps Bill Pascrell from New Jersey and Curt Weldon from Penn. have both sponsored a bill in the House (H.R. 1168, the Firefighter Investment and Response Enhancement (FIRE) bill) along with Senators Chris Dodd (CT) and Mike DeWine (OH) in the Senate, (S 1941) to give the fire service $5 billion in grants over the next 5 years, not even close to the same level as law enforcement has recieved in the past, but its still a goodly chunk of change. Its not exactly being embraced by the legislature, but enough chiding by the fire service has spurred things along. It about damn time, if you ask me. [/rant]
But yeah, these Census commercials are aggrivating me, too. Makes me wonder how many people are going to add to thier forms, saying they have 10 people in the house instead of 2, so their town can “get more funding” for whatever program it is that they want funding for…
Jeremy…
Nobody ever calls me after they’ve done something smart.
Don’t you see? These aren’t commercials. They’re thinly veiled threats. If you don’t fill out your census, we’ll burn your house down and have your babysitter deported. Or, if you’re really bad, we’ll send that little animated census form after you. He may look cute, but wait until the paper cuts set in.
*“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while you could miss it.” - Ferris Bueller
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