02 July, 2007

adventures in unintentional adversting #3

wal-mart comes under the gun today. our scene is a barbeque competion in memphis. as the judges are announcing the winners, a tastefully generic family (dad, mom, unisex child) walk on, pushing a wal-mart cart. the man inspects one of the grills that a competitor had used to cook his barbeque. satified that it is, indeed, a grill, he pushes it off screen, family in tow. no one at the barbeque competition seems to notice. we fade to message claiming that wal-mart has the things you need, at the "wal-mart price".

intentional message: wal-mart carries authentic items, used by authentic people in authentic situations. not just cheap crap that no one but a cheapskate would bother to purchase.

unintentional message: if you like something, steal it. preferably while the owner is distracted.

unintentional meta-message: see, wal-mart's prices aren't just low because they employ illegal aliens. they also get their stock from hijacked trucks.

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