When will the insanity end?
Anyone else catch the big ball drop for New Years in Times Square?
When the ball hit the bottom, I saw "2005" then in bigger letters, inches below 2005, there was a GIANT "DISCOVER CARD", so it looked like "2005 DISCOVER CARD".. Personally, this made me annoyed, and I turned off the TV.. Is there anything in this country that is sacred ground from commercialization and advertising garbage? Are we free from it anywhere other than in our sleep?
Everything from drug commercials on TV (which I read made up 65% of advertising expenses now), to entire ball parks being renamed to things like "Enron Field". Its all pretty much out of control, and I think there needs to be some regulation of it - and pretty quickly. Locally, we have a famous music theatre here on the side of a moutain called "Pine Knob", and a couple years ago, it was renamed to "DTE Energy Music Center" or some such crap. Well a few local Radio Stations boycotted the new name, and people stopped going there - and they had a measurable decline in visitors that most people attribute to the rediculous namechange.
I know I personally haven't been back to Tiger Stadium since it was changed to "Comerica Park".. I haven't been back to Pine Knob since it was changed to "DTE Energy". I guess its my own personal rebellian against the advertising spam we're subjected to. What ever happened to the good ole' days when ball parks and stadiums were named after famous sports figures?