Why a Sweet Commercial Sent Me Into a Blind Rage
The problem with freeloading dogs
Yesterday, this commercial came across my Twitter feed. It’s for an insurance company in Thailand, and before you watch, forget everything you know about recent trends in Thai insurance marketing.
This commercial had the intended effect on me: I got misty-eyed. And then I bought a bunch of Thai life insurance: I now have a policy that pays out 10 trillion baht (about $12) and covers Tuk Tuk accidents and elephant attacks. So good work, Thai Don Draper!
But the more I thought about it, the more complex my feelings became. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely ad — who could be against good deeds? Well, it turns out that I could be, because if you parse what’s happening, the ad oversimplifies the world in a way that might be harmful. I think the ad highlights a flaw in how some people think about public policy. So, please join me as a I shit on a sweet, uplifting vignette, and if this article does well, then I’ll follow up with pieces about how Mary Poppins supports fascism and The Very Hungry Caterpillar is apologism for the Armenian genocide.
My first criticism is the most obvious: That’s way too much water for that plant! At the risk of eliciting know-it-all corrections from South Asian Horticulture Twitter, that guy definitely just killed that plant. Also, the water will overflow in about two seconds. So: Bad start, Johnny Do-Gooder!
