Why I will never be in marketing, reason #463
This morning in CVS, I spotted a display of Father's Day cards that made me do a quite literal double-take.
The card that first caught my eye featured a picture of James T. Kirk (Young Shatner edition from the '60s) and words along the lines of, "You're the best dad in the known universes." Then when you open it up, it plays the Original Trek theme music, and on the inside is written, "...and the unknown."
Okaaaaay...well...I suppose it's cute? I guess? But do you really want to be using notorious intergalactic philanderer Kirk as the imagery on a "you're a great dad" card? I mean if the message is "you're a better dad than this guy," um, hello damning with faint praise? Hee hee! Or maybe the message was just intended to be "Here's the guy who traveled to all those other universes where the dads are less cool than you." ;)
No, I do realize that all it really means is "we needed another cute slogan and this guy represents outer space and then we can say something cute about universes." But still, yeesh.
And then while I was standing there marveling at this, I noticed another card on the display. It featured a picture of Tom Hanks in "A League Of Their Own" and on the front said something like "Dad, when it comes to knowing all the wisdom of the world..." and then on the inside "...you're in a league of your own."
I dunno, is it just me, or is it kind of weird to make a Father's Day card using imagery and phrasing from a girl-power movie about women excelling in a traditionally masculine field of endeavor? Or am I veering dangerously close to the kind of territory that makes people say feminists have no sense of humor? ;)
I could be wrong. Maybe this is exactly the kind of card that someone like maggiesox would buy for her dad (may he rest in peace) and maybe I'm just clueless due to the whole not having a dad thing. But well, it just caught my eye.
The card that first caught my eye featured a picture of James T. Kirk (Young Shatner edition from the '60s) and words along the lines of, "You're the best dad in the known universes." Then when you open it up, it plays the Original Trek theme music, and on the inside is written, "...and the unknown."
Okaaaaay...well...I suppose it's cute? I guess? But do you really want to be using notorious intergalactic philanderer Kirk as the imagery on a "you're a great dad" card? I mean if the message is "you're a better dad than this guy," um, hello damning with faint praise? Hee hee! Or maybe the message was just intended to be "Here's the guy who traveled to all those other universes where the dads are less cool than you." ;)
No, I do realize that all it really means is "we needed another cute slogan and this guy represents outer space and then we can say something cute about universes." But still, yeesh.
And then while I was standing there marveling at this, I noticed another card on the display. It featured a picture of Tom Hanks in "A League Of Their Own" and on the front said something like "Dad, when it comes to knowing all the wisdom of the world..." and then on the inside "...you're in a league of your own."
I dunno, is it just me, or is it kind of weird to make a Father's Day card using imagery and phrasing from a girl-power movie about women excelling in a traditionally masculine field of endeavor? Or am I veering dangerously close to the kind of territory that makes people say feminists have no sense of humor? ;)
I could be wrong. Maybe this is exactly the kind of card that someone like maggiesox would buy for her dad (may he rest in peace) and maybe I'm just clueless due to the whole not having a dad thing. But well, it just caught my eye.