The people of the world cannot be divided into groups based on superficial impressions or simple-to-understand categories. I always try to remember that there is more to any person’s story than I can possibly know. Even a fictitious person has layers.
Still, it’s easy to skip over all that and just get mad at a guy who’s obviously feeling pretty smug about his fancy car.
Now I enjoy a good parody on April Fool’s, or any other day. It’s legal stealing to take someone else’s idea and mock it with a near copy, inserting just the right number of tweaks to get your message across.
You’re not going to get rich enough to by a Cadillac if you make your living doing parodies. Unless you’re amazingly good at it. Parody can be deadly effective when done right, but the form has weaknesses. For one, it can fall flat if your audience doesn’t know the original. And in our increasingly fractured media landscape, finding a source document that is universally recognized can be a challenge.
That’s where money comes in handy. Fortunately, Cadillac spent piles of it on the Olympics telecasts to acquaint vast numbers of people with the fellow in the above ad and the towering self-satisfaction that must be characteristic of the target buyer for the company’s newest high-end uber-chariot.
Lots of people felt chafed by that Cadillac ad, and many complained. But the best critics asked themselves one essential question – is it ripe for parody? The answer? In this case, “You bet!”.
Beautifully done. The only thing I would change would be to have that nice shiny Ford smeared with a little healthy manure. But that might have constituted “rubbing it in.”
Why do you work so hard?
Trail Baboon 
Most excellent! I had heard about the response ad but had not yet seen it. Not entirely sure I agree that it is parody, but I’m willing to let that go.
Bless that woman if she can actually afford that new Ford as an urban organic farmer.
I’m having a hard time with today’s question because I guess I never really thought of working hard as a choice.
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Good morning. I don’t know what people are thinking who want to drive a Cadillac. By now I would think it would be a symbol of what is wrong with our country. It seems we still have people who think getting rich and buying a very expensive car is the American dream.
That shinny Ford should have a lithe manure sticking to it as you suggest, Dale. If I am working hard for something, I guess it wouldn’t be to get a shinny new car, even if is a very environmentally friendly car, although I wouldn’t mind having one of those.
While the local food message in the Ford commercial is good, it is hard to believe that a big company, like Ford, really believes that message. I think the underlying message in the Ford commercial isn’t too much different from the the message in the Cadillac commercial.
I guess I don’t want to be a hard working American. I admire the Nearings who talked about living the good life. I don’t exactly know the best way to live the good life. If I am working hard for something, it is to have a better life, but not the American dream that Cadillac and Ford are pushing in those commercials.
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Jim, one of my harbingers of Spring is when I go to Central Public Library and check out the Nearings’ books. And every year, I make the same resolve, to get my mortgage paid off so I can start living the good life like they do. As long as the roof over your head is a substantial line item on the family budget, you will be working hard.
I’m still looking for someone to write the book about how they were able to live the good life without first making a pile of money in a conventional way.
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Well, I am moving to the city instead living in the country like the Nearings, MIG. I do try to be a little like the Nearings in my own way.
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Walden would suffice, if it were not mostly fiction. Not that I am putting the book down because if I start to reread it, I cannot put it down.
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Will have to take a look at that agaun. Not sure I have ever read the whole thing.
Got the s&h Henry Hikes to Fitchburg as a toddler which is based on an essay (I think) by the same author.
You can spend all day walking, or you can spend all day working for the money to buy the train ticket.
I believe it is also Thoreau who talks about the young man who goes to work in the city so he can “afford” to be a poet.
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I think we all know people who couldn’t afford to be doing their “art” if they didn’t have a day job or a spouse with one. I know this is true of several musicians, several potters, and a couple of painters that I know.
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But as with Thoreau’s young man, most of us are not fit to be the artists we could be, once we have made “enough”.
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Yes, you’re smart to question whether or not big companies believe the things they say in their ads. Knowing a little bit about advertising, I’d say truly believing the message is not a requirement.
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Rise and Toil Baboons!
The only answer I can think of is, “Because that is the way I am.” Maybe later today I will think of a great April Fools line, but still groggy, I guess.
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I’m not sure I do work hard these days, certainly not by the standards of my work life when I was young and healthy. But if you had asked the younger me why I worked hard, the honest answer would have been because I enjoyed the work. At its best, writing can be such a pleasure you feel you should be paying others for the privilege of doing it.
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Is it the work you enjoy, or being done with it? I like writing but I like it more when I can say I have written, and now it’s time for a nap.
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Actually, the work. After finishing a big project, I often grieve the loss of a reason to get to the computer and start writing again. Finishing a major project was like losing a good friend.
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Despite all the money that ND has, Human Services has to beg for anything it gets. The operating phrase out here is “Doing more with less”. We have a huge need for addiction counselors, yet we can’t hire anyone due to the low State wages and the high cost of living. When my husband retires, he won’t be replaced because someone has determined we have too many psychologists at our agency. Eventually, the only thing you can do with less is less. Husband and I work hard because there really isn’t anyone else right now who can do what we do.
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Renee, given how you describe the situation I’d say your work ethic is driven by a sense of fairness and decency. Someone who didn’t care about the clients would not work hard, even though the situation calls for it.
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It is a puzzle. Even being retired, where I get to choose what, where, and when I work, there is some force that drive me. A combination of enjoyment, wanting to be useful, and knowing how much needs to be done in the world. Off to work at aerobics class.
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That’s a loaded question, Dale. I, for one, cop to not working very hard these days. Like mig, prior to retiring, it never occurred to me that not working hard was an option, even though I worked around any number of people who clearly didn’t have that same work ethic. Some of that is cultural, I think, and perhaps also influenced by climate. I’m pretty sure that most people of northern European ancestry are afflicted with a work ethic similar to mine. Having recently spent a couple of weeks in Mexico, I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing.
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Yup. Not so sure we northerners can claim a lot of virtue in this, when the alternative is starving and freezing solid to the ground.
Friend of mine from Louisiana was a music major who had a teacher from Minnesota. Teacher came upon a bunch of students lounging outside the practise rooms and demanded to know why they all weren’t practising.
“Well ma’am, we were fixin’ to practice”
Teacher had clearly had enough of southern gentility and stormed, “in Minnesota, we do not ‘fix’ to do a thing, we do it and get it done!!!”
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I doubt Northern Europeans have anything special going on in the work ethic department, PJ. Some just talk a good game and cop an attitude. I’ve been told I excel at appearing busy, which is a talent I’ve nurtured since high school. The actual results indicate I’m not doing nearly enough, but with just my eyebrows and body posture I can make it look like I’m completely swamped and totally exhausted. Ask me how I do it and I’ll give you a look that will make you take the question back!
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I like the woman in the Ford ad, but I am pretty sure she doesn’t use that car for hauling her food scraps and manure. It’s not a practical vehicle for the kind of work she does. Does she have another vehicle too?
I use my car for work, and I’ve often thought it would be nice to have two vehicles, so I could occasionally drive something new, clean and uncluttered. It’s too expensive to own and insure two vehicles, though, so my compromise solution is to have an HourCar membership. My HourCar is usually a Prius and looks sort of like her Ford.
I don’t work very hard. I’m more like the Europeans Mr. Snobbypants sneers at.
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Great idea! I’ve been thinking the Buick is looking a bit rough and should be replaced, but then I remember I have a 15-year-old. I may have to give your idea serious consideration.
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It’s been years since I’ve “worked hard” – probably since my kids left home. I beat myself up for not working hard and have for years. It kind of feels like that commercial for a new arthritis drug: “A body in motion tends to stay in motion”. Other than dancing once a week, my body isn’t in motion at all. Conversely ,inertia begets more inertia.
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I was raised to it. It was THE model adult behavior of my childhood and what was required of me.
It may be the modeling that matters, as I have long pondered, because my children, whom we barely required to do any work, are both workaholics.
Or genetic.
I would say “stay tuned” for me to report the results on the next generation, but I doubt I will be around or cogent enough to know.
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As I sit and watch so many people do what they do, I marvel at their drive and energy. Just think about being a Franken or Clinton or Gates or Obama and the sheer amount daily tasks they must perform?!! To me, it’s simply incomprehensible. I makes me tired just thinking about it.
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w didnt impress you?
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Ha! A incompetent man who took 437 days of vacation? Naw – didn’t impress me at all.
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Yes, Crystalbay, some of those high profile people are strivers and they accomplish things. But they’re also surrounded by people who do their bidding and then fade into the woodwork. That kind of support can make achievements seem effortless when really the work was just farmed out. For example, I’m guessing it’s a lot easier to be Al Franken than it is to be a single mother raising a child and holding down a job.
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Me, too. The modeling from parents is where my mind first traveled at the question, Clyde.
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Barbara’s comments got me thinking about my parents and “working hard.” I don’t think that was an important value for my mother. And my dad, while he did work hard, downplayed it because he felt that a man should work hard without honking his own horn about it. He did what he had to do, but kept it all private.
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I don’t think most parents go on about how hard they work, but the ones I have sure will give you the business if they think you are slacking off while they are doing it.
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Ditto, at our house, mig. Hard work was never spoken about, but it was taken for granted that you’d do your share. Probably why I feel guilty to this day if I sit idle when there’s work to be done.
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My Dad was the son of an immigrant. He was the first in his family to get a college education. His father wanted to be a doctor, but ended up making a living as the owner and operator of several small rural cheese factories and a farm. I think my Dad was driven to advance himself to reach a level of success that his father would have liked to have achieved. By the end of his career as a power plant engineer he had served as the lead engineer for the design and construction of several very large electric power plants.
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i grew up the son of a perfectionist. like an alcholics kids the results is either to succomb to the gens or go the oppoiste way. my day was very low key. i know he hated the perfectionist do it right or not at all he grew up with so i wanst saddled with that. my kids dont do anything because i try to teach them to do it right and dont take the time to teach them how to do it while working with them. do you know how long it takes to paint a room if there is someone doing stuff you need ot look after.? i tend to work hard because my it creates the opportunity to screw off sooner. if you get it right the pay out is wonderful. having ecperienced that for an extended periiod i can recommend it but its a bitch to try to claw back up to the top from the bottom of the heap. i have the tools and the ethic and the knowledge so it is frustrating not to have it bing bang pop into place like it should. i am working on 5 projects as we spoeak and need some big dollars to ge tthe latest project off the ground along with some moderate dollars to ge the 3 year old start up on its feet and in a go mode rather than the al i need is nmode its in right now. i have gone to some shindigs that keep my brain flying and the new ideas would be great if only i could sleep less to implement them. im working on it im working on it.
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sorry ,,,my dad was the son of a perfectionist. i lived a better life because he saw how that didnt work for his dad
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thank you to dale for keeping the blog up and running. i am reminded on april fools day every year of the two guest blogs i snet to joke that the trial balloon was being cut by mpr. during its short life on this earth.
i think the second on dale let me know it was not too far from the reality. while mpr does some stuff ok and dale had found a home at kfai and we are all grateful for the trial and the baboondocks the message is that hard work is not the answer. being happy is. no one ever wished for more time at the workplace while looking back from deaths door. i will look back fondly on the family and friends and the good vibes thoughts laughs and repartee shared here with you all and thats no joke.
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Thanks for the kind words, you son of a son of a perfectionist!
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🙂
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i had a chance about 15 years ago to have a new guy come into the office to be my right hand. my regular guy was going to equador to join the peace corps and would be tied up for a couple of years. he gave me a guy he knew and said this guy would be ok. the two of them worked together for a week or two before doug went off to his new life and left me with dave. dave was a nice kid a punk rock guitar guy who tried hard but man if you are not right you are just not right. it turned out the feeling was mutual. i think he left and my as he was leaving he told me to focus a bit with whoever took over. he said doug had told him that when i wandered away with a thought and left it floating just file it away and remember it like a bookmark and that i would come back around to it eventually. i didnt realize i did that prior to his mentioning it i have since come to the realazation that i do that in all aspects of life and if i dont have 6 or 7 balls up in the air at once i throw some more up their to get back into my comfort zone. when my kids have friends over and we are driving along in the car or something they will tell me to try to stay on a single topic of conversation to allow the newbies to participate in the multilevel thinking that goes on normally. it reminds me a bit of the 3d chess game in star wars where the challenge is the thing you learn to deal with and the thinking does become natural after a while. i can hold a conversation with my brain solving things on the side (i think ) but i also miss chunks of time and space while i am off in la la land solving problems and conundrums in a far away galaxie looking after my other selfs issues. i love being able to work stuff out in my own way and the times when i am alone to work things out without lots of secondary thoughts competing are valued but rare now that the smart phone is calling out everywhere you go on this planet. i am with dale it is nice to work but nicer to say you are done and be ready for a nap. that doenst happen any more these days. i work out problems while im in my naps and jot down the solutions when i wake up. why do i work so hard. how do you stop? i hear the europeans are better at the two week vacation and that americans like stress and busy lives. i love vacations and would love to be able to take a week aont off to enjoy the planet but until i hit that magic button i will keep plugging away the only way i know how. i work hard i play hard i think hard i love life hard. i dont understand small emotions anymore. i think im done with this therapy session thank you baboons
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Just trying to comprehend how your mind works, tim, makes me dizzy. I’m no good at multitasking at all, one day in your universe and be done for.
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when i was a smoker i would wake up and go stand on the front step and have that first cigarette and come back in while i felt my body doing the dizzy spin form the am start up with the chemical acclamation. it was sick and it took me years to quit even with that intro to the day. thinking is a bit like that. i get up and get started and i just go along for the ride and hope for the best. it makes me dizzy in a different way but if i quit this habbit the consequences are even more dramatic than the consequences for not quitting the other. .
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