Friday, November 29, 2013

Ron Burgundy + Dodge = surprising beneficiary


Dodge's series of ads featuring Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy (such as the one above) have not compelled me to buy one of their cars (and we won't be seeing the promoted upcoming sequel in the theater because our baby is due just before its opening—although this level of cross-promotion does cause me to wonder whether the movie may not live up to its predecessor).

What the commercials have inspired me to do: download the 1970 song "Grazin' in the Grass" (by Friends of Distinction), as the horn riff from that is what is used at the end of the spots.

That group benefited from the ads not only in getting a tiny royalty from my purchase but also in reminding me that the track was not (as I vaguely thought beforehand) by the Fifth Dimension.

Double score.

Monday, November 25, 2013

The hidden sexism of preparing for babies

In preparation for the baby my wife and I have attended several classes. Last week we went to a class on breastfeeding. One commonality in all the classes was a couched (or overt) plea by the instructor to the expectant fathers to do more of the housework both toward the end of the pregnancy and after the baby has arrived in order to take that pressure off the mother (while she is finishing gestating and then is recovering and then is getting little sleep with feeding the newborn).

No duh.