An enormous billboard near where I live ecstatically declares: Joy it Forward. In a color scheme obviously referencing that somehow famous Red-White-N-Blue (like, those are the like national colors, like) Obama poster, the ad campaign calls on one and all to take up their Pepsi, hold it high in the air and in unison call forth an unprecedented era of peace, prosperity, happiness and beverage imbibement. Joy it Forward everyone! The campaign's website entreats us to "glimpse into the world of joy," invites us to take part in some sort of ritual of good cheer, which Pepsi Co. calls "Joygles." I think their intending "joygle" to remind people of giggle, but whatever their intention it's lost on me. The term throws me into a spinning vortex of the deepest uncertainty, I'm left floating in mid air, no sense of earth or sky, order and reason have fled me, I'm lost in the netherworld of vacuous, well-financed advertising.What could they possibly mean? Sugar soda is everywhere available all the time, there's nothing new in this. According to some raw data that I've been crunching on the ol' computing apparatus (don't worry, it's lubricated), in the US alone, 56,763,900,000 litres of soda beverages were consumed in 2008. That's a lot of litres. So it's probably safe to say that Coke and Pepsi are, like, everywhere in our culture. The paunches on our children and the blood-sugar readers pricking their fingers also corroborates this carefully uncovered fact. So soft drinks are basically as common as blankets and pillows, pretty much everyone has used them at one point or another. So what's so joyful about something so utterly familiar and commonplace? I understand that marketing divisions have to come up with some slogan or another every couple years, so to keep their stale products fresh, but "Joy it Forward"? Come on!
As with so much which is all veneer and no substance, I'm left feeling the opposite of the slogan's friendly imperative. The "rebranding" (another nonsensical modern farce) was carried out by BBDO Toronto, where it's all about The Work. The Work. The Work. That's where, like, all of the creativity happens. Joy it Forward you say? I'll joy it forward around your throat as we plunge down into the depths of hell together. I'll joy it forward with my furious scowl as I picket beneath your mighty signage, with a placard that warns, "The end times are nigh, nay they've arrived and are almost unpacked! Look to asinine, inane, yes, retarded, marketing slogans as a sure sign that the world has unraveled to its end. Fear not religious, economic or military tensions, Joying it Forward tolls the devil's bell."
Oh, I'm only kidding. Why not relax and enjoy a Pepsi Cola? Don't the sweet bubbles make your nose tickle? Hey, I can see you're getting a lot of joy out of that can of pop. Have you thought about spreading some of the good cheer around? Why not Joy it Forward!? Everybody's doing it!
3 comments:
well spirited dear friend.
I cannot believe, however, that you didn't riff on the fact that this (b)ad campaign is sure to jog the memories of the masses by making a seeming reference to the recent cultural turdstone of a film that starred that "I see dead people" kid.
This really is the stupidest thing I can think of right now. Nothing comes to mind that is more stupid.
And does it seem as though pop music is just getting horribly worse (not that it ever was even tolerable). I have been blissfully unaware of the world around me, but today i turned on the local 'Today's BEST hits!' radio station and heard the most gut wrenching songs that I think I've EVER heard in my entire 28 years as a living human being.
Some new Black Eyed Peas number about how great the night is gonna be and that they're gonna party everyday. And then Madonna chimes in with the same sentiment. What's going on out here???
I say it's the put-on optimism of what is apparently a recession - it was there during the 80s and would have been there during the 30s except that socialism and the radical left were still considered to be a mere underpaid/underemployed workers' fad by the western governments. In short this advertising, the pop songs, everything - it is simply a method of combating communism which continues to raise its red head between the safe and calming hues of blue and white.
Either that or I'm just going through another period of paranoia....
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