Victory is ours

Certain Blogs would like to thank you, dear reader, for your unflinching support of my advertisers-who-use-unfunny-clichés-and-outright- misconceptions- about-masculinity-to-sell-their-products Boycott.

A mere six months ago, the average viewer was besieged by these types of commercials. But now, thanks to your efforts, either these ads have been expunged from the airwaves or I have become so numb that I no longer notice them. Either way, it smells like victory from here.

Let's look back at the progression of our movement. The first important step happened in mid-summer, when I finally got tired of complaining about these stupid ads. As luck would have it, this initial stage was followed by a prolonged period where I was traveling or otherwise living without cable television. While I was gone, Hummer retooled the commercial that had drawn my ire, rendering my lucid, carefully measured rant obsolete.

The third step happened after I moved to New York, where I ordered a DVR along with my cable package. Armed with the ability to record stuff and fast-forward through the commercials, I became oblivious to whatever buffoonish ads were probably still on TV.

Finally, last week, the death knell sounded.

During the middle of an NFL playoff game, I noticed a peculiar commercial for a pickup truck. The ad begins stupidly enough, with two dudes doing a bunch of rugged things to their truck, like throwing anvils into the bed. But then the guys get into the cab, which is reasonably clean and nice looking. And when the passenger puts his feet on the dashboard, the driver says something like, "hey asshole, get your fucking feet off my dashboard".

I was dumbstruck, and not just by the driver's potty mouth. Here was a character in a truck commercial who (a) used his truck for its intended purpose and (b) didn't want it to look like complete shit if he could help it.

Holy hell! What a reasonable way to act!!!