Office Bound
Today is Columbus Day, one of those sick and twisted minor patriotic holidays when everyone gets the day off except me. I escaped from the office for a true lunch hour, which I spent walking in Downtown Crossing amid tourists and shoppers. Yeah, it was nice day, 76 degrees with clear sunny blue skies… but it was undeniably breezy, almost downright windy. Ha. Hope you enjoyed your windy day off, folks.
Guerrilla Marketing
Concerned that recruitment numbers will not sustain current and future hegemonic military actions, the US Army is preparing to unveil a snazzy new multimedia ad campaign that Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey says “speaks to the essential truth” of being a soldier. Wait, I’m confused. Will the ads feature well-discplined, sexy soldiers completing missions by virtue of iron determination and cool gadgetry… or a pile of dead humans?
Most notably, the Army plans to replace its slogan An Army of One with Army Strong, which conveys to prospective recruits that “you will gain physical and emotional strength, as well as strength of character.” Hmmm… Army Strong strikes me as too vague, too Rorschach-inkblot to carry such a nuanced message. I’m not in their key marketing demographic, but the slogan makes me think “Army STRONG. Civilian WEAK. Foreigner WEAK. Prisoner WEAK. Army STRONG! STRONG kills WEAK!”
Size 0s and a 20
I didn’t feel the need to comment on the recent controversy within the fashion world when models with a BMI below 18 were not allowed to strut the runways in Madrid, until I saw a picture of Jean Paul Gaultier’s size 20 model in black lingerie. If this controversy is over promoting health, is he trying to promote obesity as the healthy alternative to repugnant thinness? Why not use nothing but size 6-10 models, for now on? Must everything in the depraved world of high fashion be so extreme and shocking?
Nuclear Kimchi
This morning, the local news segued from “North Korea Tests Nuclear Device” to “Brad and Angelina’s Bodyguard Gets Out of Line with Paparazzi.” At first I wanted to hurl my water bottle at the TV in Gold’s Gym, but then I realized anchor-bunny Christa Delcamp delivering news of historic importance was sort of irritating anyway.
I wonder if the typical starving North Korea is pleased with his country’s accomplishment. Government propaganda probably works better on a full stomach.
