A carnival of technology

I listen to a lot of college and public radio, so this means that my commercials come from the Ad Council instead of The Shane Company or Bill Heard Chevrolet. There are a variety of issues that our country’s hard-working propaganda business tackles today, educating me daily on the dangers of childhood diseases, teenage pregnancy, and filing my taxes through paper and post. Although none of their active campaigns seem to be as memorable or capable of taking a permanent place in the American consciousness as ones like Rosie the Riveter, Smokey the Bear, or that crying Indian dude, there are a couple of ad series that stick in my mind. One is the Energy Hog ads, a series reminiscent of a Rayovac commercial, advising kids to quit wasting so much energy, lest a hog come and eat their radio. They’re kind of amusing. Far more amusing, though, was an ad I heard on WRAS this morning. It consisted of a twangy, catchy country band singing about breastfeeding. That’s right, radio took an abrupt turn from some mumbling guitarist with bad hair straight to Nashville to tell me the importance of breastfeeding. It was a very touching song. “She gave from her heart, or somewhere nearsby.” I wonder if there’s a television campaign around this, too.