It's true - I'm Time's person of the year... then again, I'm more accurately tied with millions of other people. The physical cover is pretty neat (see above) because in the screen they put a mylar mirror so you could see yourself. This did cause a bit of confusion since I picked up this edition first thing in the morning and wondered why they had chosen Don King - and more importantly, why was he white? After combing my hair I returned to reading the article.
It turns out that one of the most influential forces of 2006 was the realization of "Web 2.0" - perhaps the dumbest name ever for the groundswell of individuals that are creating content on the Internet. Video, audio, and of course blogs are bringing diverse perspectives outside of the standard, homogenized media channels. YouTube was singled out as a real driver of this movement in the magazine. The editor does briefly concede that there is more than a small percentage of "flaming cantaloupe" type videos to counter-balance those raw feeds from Baghdad.
So I head over to Time.com to download a picture of the cover (to share the news of my selection with you fine people)... I clicked through to the current edition and there was one of those annoying inter-page ads. Not just a basic one, oh no, a full-blown video add. But what's this? What does the blasphemous advertisement say?
Que footage of the Chrysler weaving through the streets of a city - and then:
...but you can drive like you are.
Heyyy - but I _am_ person of the year. Wait, does this mean I should be driving a Sebring. (sigh) Here I am slaving away at the keyboard to become someone - I finally succeed, and I find out I still have to keep up with the Joneses. I guess I can't truly join the ranks of Ted Turner, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Bill Gates until I own a Sebring like they do. Who knew the _other_ Pope-mobile was made in the U.S. (Pope John Paul II - selected 1994)? Well, if I bought the car as they suggest I know I would have something in common with at least one other selectee - 1928's "Man of the Year" Walter Chrysler (the title wasn't made P.C. until 1999).
I relish the heightened irony of this commercial obviously being custom placed before this article on Time's own website. It's ads like this that make my job as a sarcastic smart-ass easy :)
2 comments:
a sarcastic, smart-ass? you? who knew?
Wait - were you just using sarcasm? Oh the irony! Coming up with that self-referential comment means you are pretty smart too - hmmm... wait a minute, what are the odds of being only 2/3? ;)
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