Mad Woman!

Today I saw on Facebook a photo that took me back to high school. This photo was part of a series showing gifted students promoting new products in a Shark Tank competition.  But, seeing that photo made me laugh out loud.  If you look carefully, it shows a mummy wrapped in toilet paper.

Television ads have always interested me.  I have actually stopped watching TV shows when the ads didn't "measure up".  When our daughter were watching "junk" TV, I would ask them to analyze the ads. "What is the target audience? "Is this you?  Do you represent this target audience? If not, turn to another show."

Our older two daughters used to sit with little desks watching ads while making magazines with ads.  They even took a video class  one summer so they could "film" TV shows with commercials in our basement. I once heard that watching how children play will determine their future.  While neither daughter currently works in advertising, one majored in Advertising in the School of Journalism and the other majored in Communications. They are both still interested in art and computer graphics.

When teaching German, I even enjoyed showing a video of German commercials.  I still can look at a commercial and tell if it was made in Germany.  Their chocolate and candy commercials target adults, while American ones target children.  So instead of dancing colorful packages and cartoon figures, German commercials show candle light, well dressed beautiful couples and creamy chocolate.  When they taste a piece of chocolate, their eyes light up in delight  and they waltz off together. The implication is that candy is an aphrodisiac whereas our commercials emphasize energy and riotous fun.

That photo of a student promoting toilet paper took me back to my Speech and Drama class---a class that sometimes caused anxiety but sometimes. . . .mirth. I was the class clown, so debates, memorizing scenes from Greek Drama and giving a funeral oration were definitely more anxiety than mirth. The teacher was a tall, thin and strict woman named Mrs. Betancourt who had a look that would freeze you in your track if you tried to joke around during play practice or weren't serious during debate.  But, when our assignment was to create a television commercial, I was all in.

I had several rolls of toilet paper that I was going to promote.  I very seriously talked about the advantages of Norcross toilet paper over other name brands.  I took the paper wrapper off and demonstrated how it was strong and yet it dissolved in water. When I was done extolling the virtues of Norcross TP,  I launched into the jingle to the tune of  The Man on the Flying Trapeze.

It flies through the air with the greatest of ease---

Norcross makes the finest of all the Tps

My actions are graceful, it always does please:

It tears apart in the rain and stays in the trees.

And I began throwing toilet paper around the room weaving in and out of my classmates desks before I finally got to the teacher where I nervously wrapped her in TP like a mummy.  The  class nervously giggled, while watching Mrs. Betancourt as she slowly stood up, unwrapping herself.  First one eye was on me and another and then her mouth---she was SMILING.  The class erupted: her smile giving them permission to enjoy the moment.  I had TPed the class and the teacher and I got a good grade for it!