Last evening my wife, Miranda Kopfschmertzen, and I were watching Al Gore’s cable channel “Current.” There was a documentary on the plight of North Koreans trying to escape their country by a) sneaking in the relative safety of China, then b) bum rushing the Japanese consulate and asking for asylum.
Needless to say, the events did not go according to plan. It was quite tragic and sad. (For you see, if the Chinese catch these refugees, they send them back to North Korea, where they are sent to camps, executed, disappear…)
But then right after documenting one of the worst human tragedies and tugging at your heart-strings, Current saw fit to cut to commercial. Not just any commercial though. It was a L’Oreal commercial featuring Scarlett Johansson selling the American customer on making their fabulous lives even more super glamourous through the use of their super awesome products.
Now, I’m not saying anything against L’Oreal or Scarlett Johansson. L’Oreal has every right advertise and Scarlett Johansson has every right to accept sweet sums of cash to strut around in L’Oreal’s products. (Jack Lord knows I’d sure do it for the amount of money they paid Scarlett Johansson.) The fault lies with Current.
Dear Current Producers:
Never go straight from the horrors of human tragedy to the excess of Western decadence. You need to soften that blow. Maybe throw a Sally Struthers commercial in there, or one of those commercials with that Santa Claus guy who chastises you for being willing to spend $4 everyday on coffee, but not 38