My son is into baseball. I mean, I’m into baseball on a casual level, but he is really into it. We watched the Home Run Derby last week that was held right here in Atlanta. A really enjoyable watch, even if it’s not my normal go-to. Home run hitters cranking them from batting practice pitches. Ok, I’m in.
What assaulted me left and right as we were watching the Derby were ads. Ads between rounds. Ads between hitters. Even ads between portions of the same hitter’s round. It got so bad that I almost turned it off. And I may have if Brian wasn’t going off to college in a couple of weeks. (I wanted to savor a little bit of that time, despite the ad barrage.)
Putting that behind me, the next day I went to lunch and was scrolling on Instagram (my first mistake, I know). I happen to see a post from Atlanta United, where they showed off some new merchandise based on their affiliation with Atlanta’s (admittedly not great) public transportation system, MARTA. And one of the products they showcased was a scarf featuring both Atlanta United and MARTA. My instinct kicked in. “I must have this!” (I’m a bit of a soccer scarf collector.) I sent it to my family, and bookmarked it away to check on how to get it later.
On that very drive home, I happened to be listening to a 2021 episode of “The Rewatchables”. They were discussing the 1999 David Fincher film “Fight Club”. A wonderful satire of toxic masculinity taken to a dangerous extreme, the movie comments on the state of culture in America as we approached the end of the 20th century. In his own words, Bill (Simmons) summed up one of the major lessons the movie was trying to convey like this:
Advertising, and the illusion that you need something, is fucking up an entire generation.
That statement stopped me cold. As in, I pressed “pause” on the podcast and rode in silence for quite a while. I am a victim of the very thing he just said. Advertising continues to invade every part of our culture. Any social media feed. The radio. Watching television. Even the Home Run Derby. Hell, I went to a movie with my son recently, and there was an ad in the middle of the trailers.
🤦🏻♂️
Back to the scarf…Am I one of the lemmings the movie mocks? Am I part of the problem in Bill’s summary statement?
Probably.
The next day, I went to the Atlanta United store and asked about the scarf. They had sold out of the scarf the previous day (the same day it was “released”). Always the salesperson, the lady said “but they will have them at the game on Saturday, but you’ll probably need to get there really early to get one!”
Again, my interest was piqued. I couldn’t help myself. And I thought “should we go to the game?” In other words, should we spend $350 on tickets, parking, and food in the hopes of obtaining a $40 scarf? Seems crazy, right? But I thought about it. I considered it. And then I remembered Bill’s words.
We didn’t go.
