MSNBC’s Allison Linn isn’t so sure about an ad she saw for the United States Marine Corps. While she enjoyed the striking movement of the Silent Drill Team against panoramic views of America’s landscapes, Linn wonders “whether those who choose to make that sacrifice would feel turned off, or even pandered to, by the contradiction between what this commercial presents, and what reality has to offer.”
Linn’s questioning of the ad and its inclusion in an MSNBC feature called “Ads of the Weird” is ironic — if not outlandishly silly — when one considers the setting in which she viewed the ad: a screening of Sex and the City. Not since the advent of the Barbie doll and her near-fleshless sister, the Supermodel, have American women been subjected to a more off-kilter presentation of what the above-average American woman can expect to bed, bathe, and beyond.
This (Ret.) Marine spouse wonders why Linn didn’t ask anyone who has made the sacrifice what they thought of the ad. One can only assume Linn doesn’t really care what they think. It’s not like the Marine Corps is not right around the corner from her.
As if exposing some previously unknown truth about the military, she says, “This is a country that has been involved in a major, complex conflict for five years, and joining up these days is very literally an agreement to risk your life for your country.”
Duh — but let me tell you why.
In the attempt to catch the Marine Corps in some kind of deception, Linn managed to paraphrase George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, not to mention several choice Marines, including Lt. General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller (WWII, Korean War) and GySgt Dan Daley (WWI at Belleau Wood).
Linn laments that she didn’t expect the ad. In the very next sentence she says, “That fact gets to the heart of what is right and wrong with ‘America’s Marines’.”
Since when is an expectation (read: judgment, opinion, emotional reaction), or the lack thereof, a fact? It took Linn more than 400 words to get to what she thought was wrong, a contention she couldn't be bothered to support, and she didn’t say what was right.
Article comments
1 - Marlon
I feel sorry for this woman that she cannot view a commercial showing the beauty of this country as a backdrop for the Marines that protect it without thinking it disingenuous. Is it just her or has the entire country become so soft minded that apparently nobody knows that enlisting in the armed forces just might place them in harms way unless she tells them? Evidently she has no such problem suspending reality when it comes to paying to watch drivel like a movie based on a television series whose main characters have the morals of cats in heat.
2 - Dr Dreadful
Screening the ad at a showing of Sex in the City does seem terribly incongruous - as if one were to have Nine Inch Nails play a concert at Nancy Reagan's birthday celebrations.
Still, such juxtapositions do make life interesting. I sometimes think that it would be amusing if that guy who does the voiceovers for Toyota truck commercials were to advertise L'Oreal, for instance, or Carl's Jr started using Sarah Jessica Parker to sell their messy burgers.
3 - Teri Centner
Great post this week! Thanks for including a clip of the commercial so I could watch it. I'm not a Marine, but as a member of a fellow (if wimpier) military component, I thought it was great. My reacting was something akin to that of the Marine who offered up the long quote about pansies. :)
4 - patrick
Sex and the City seems to have a polarizing effect on both men and women... people either love the movie or they hate it