A Better Night's Skeptic

We don't watch much TV in my house. What we do watch is the occasional PBS cartoon (think "Clifford" or "Fetch!"), some "Jane and the Dragon" on qubo, and sports. Any sport. Using our house rules definitions, figure skating and ballroom dancing are sports, but only at the national competition levels.

I was watching a basketball game with my seven year old son, and we were discussing the rules. Why the three-point arc doesn't touch the free-throw circle, why some fouls give free throws and some do not, why do they have to keep tucking their shirts in, etc. They got to the point where they need to take a TV timeout, and went to commercials.

NCAA playoff games are not marketing vehicles to the under-ten crowd. I was pretty certain I would not see Pokemon or GI Joe. I knew there would be a Cialis or Viagra commercial, but those are usually really circumspect, and he doesn't really watch that closely. When a network commercial gets thrown in for a somewhat suspenseful/violent show or movie (CSI, NCIS, and so on), I tell him, "You might cover your eyes for this," and he typically does. He's rather sensitive to that.

A commercial for mattresses came on. It must have been a Sleep Number commercial, because the tag line was "A Better Night's Sleep". The commercial ended, and my son huffed. I asked him what was wrong with the commercial, and he says, "Ha. A Better Night's Sleep. They just say that to try to get you to buy it."

Marketers of the world, beware. A seven year old boy is onto your scheme to try to get us to buy your stuff.

Until another time,
Salt