Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

A couple of days ago, in the course of conversation, cattitude showed me one of the "Old Spice Guy" ads that came out a little while ago. (It was relevant, and I hadn't previously bothered to look at any.)

So, the thing starts "look at me. Now look at your guy. Now look at me." So I did, and I smiled at Cattitude, and then looked back at the screen. In the course of 30 seconds of boasting, the Old Spice spokesman insults "your guy" (who I like better than that random muscled stranger) and then argues that "smells like a lady" is a disadvantage. For me, if "smells like a woman" means anything, it's pleasant thoughts of adrian_turtle, so positive rather than negative. And those smell-memories aren't from scented deodorant.

I can see how this ad might work on a lot of people, but my reactions were "don't dis my beloved," "what's wrong with that?" (the "smells like a lady" part), and "I am clearly not the target market here."

This isn't a "why would anyone do that?" moment, it's a case of pop culture/marketing passing me by because I'm not what they're looking at: in purely numerical terms, an ad that works on straight women and/or men who are or want to be involved with straight women, but puzzles or alienates some bi women and our partners is worthwhile. (This is "alienates" on the level of "I am not going to suggest someone use this," not "avoid people who have anything to do with this" or even "if you enjoyed these, you're weird."

(I am not a potential customer for the product itself because, as an anti-perspirant, it contains aluminum compounds that make me break out. This does simplify choosing a deodorant.)

cattitude called a little while ago, to say he was on his way home, and would be taking the 1 train because the A isn't running this far north right now. And before I could ask him to pick something up at the store, he told me that he was staring at a billboard advertising Lindenmayer systems. To which I said, "Isn't that an abstraction?"

It is. The ad asked "How does your garden grow?" and included something about a fertilizer that was safe, organic, and context-free. Which sounds like another in the long line of people misusing scientific technology to sell nostrums.

There was, of course, an URL. In the course of asking Cattitude for it, him saying he didn't have enough paper to write down the whole slogan, and getting him to give me the URL, I completely forgot that we need toilet paper. I did, however, confirm that the URL was valid, and that they are not selling fertilizer, organic or otherwise.

[Cattitude took a photo of the billboard with his cellphone. If it's good, I'll edit this post to add it.]