Program scripts from week of May 6, 2013
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Thinking About Rap and History
It’s our first ever theme week here at View From the Phlipside. All our shows this week will center on the same theme. And theme for this inaugural theme week is - WHAT Were You Thinking?
For this installment I needed to do a little research. That’s because the story revolves around the rap star known as Lil Wayne. Now Li’l Wayne is not on my regular music playlist (you’re stunned I know) so I needed to get a little background. What I discovered is gold and platinum selling albums, Grammy Award and that he has passed no less than Elvis Presley for the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles list. I may not know his music but this guy has to be credited as a Big Star.
Yet somehow this big star doesn’t seem to have anyone around him that can help him with some “think first, speak second” type details. I keep wondering in all these stories where the legal department has been keeping itself.
In L’il Wayne’s case it involves the lyrics he contributed to a song by fellow rapper Future called “Karate Chop”. In them the big star makes a very uncool reference to the beating death of civil right’s martyr Emmitt Till. The Till Foundation took great exception and Pepsi has yanked an endorsement deal. (Now Pepsi has it’s own What Were You Thinking problem with an online ad that plays to racial stereotypes which they’ve yanked as well. It’s like there’s something in air). The rapper’s first attempt to “fix” things went awry when his apology never actually got around to, you know, apologizing. He felt their pain and promised never to do it again. But the whole “I was wrong and I’m sorry” never quite made it into the letter.
It’s just astounding. I’m pretty sure Li’l Wayne has a manager slash agent slash legal counsel. He can certainly afford one. I’m also assuming that his record label has folks who do the legal eagle stuff as well. I mean there are a LOT of lawyers in this country.
The fact that no one in that process ever said “Um, Emmett Till is kind of a major historical figure and this is EXACTLY the wrong way to be mentioning him. Maybe we ought to try something else” just astounds me.
Thinking About Bad Television
I talk to people virtually every week who just despair over the state of television programming in this country. They look out over the hundreds of channels available to us today and see nothing but mindless drivel. What isn’t mindless is actively making you stupider. It’s so depressing.
Well at least until you start looking at TV offerings from elsewhere in the world. For today’s installment of our theme I direct your attention to Denmark. Now as a general rule I have a pretty positive impression of Denmark. Never been there, don’t know much about it but it seems pretty OK. At the same time they let the program “Blachman” slide through the programming approval process to hit the airwaves.
I’m not even sure how to describe this show. It’s named for it’s host and creator Thomas Blachman. The show consists of Blachman and a guest doing...commentary. OK this is where it gets awkward. A young woman comes out on stage dressed in a silky robe. Once she’s standing in front of the two men she drops her robe. Which, it turns out, is the only thing she was wearing. Blachman and guest then do commentary on her body. That’s the whole the show. Two guys offering their opinions on a naked woman.
The reaction has been pretty much what you’d expect. Outrage. Petitions. Angry phone calls. Social media going berserk. In the middle of it all we find Thomas Blachman.
Who claims he doesn’t understand why everyone is so upset. My two favorite quotes from him are “Ungratefulness is the only thing that can really wear down the few geniuses who reside in our country. “ And yes he’s talking about himself there. Worse yet it appears he actually lives here in New York state. And this about the show’s concept “The female body thirsts for words. The words of a man”
Mr Blachman? I think there are a few women here who have a few words for you.
Crisis Management
In this installment we look at the advertising agencies for a variety of automobile manufacturers. Normally my biggest complaint with car ads is that they’re boring. Long spiels about the wonderful technical specifications that most people don’t really understand or pitches that buying this car will make you attractive to members of the opposite sex or shots of the car driving MUCH faster than you will ever have the opportunity or honestly, the desire.
So maybe what happened here is that the folks on the creative teams are just as bored with it all as I am. That would be the only rational explanation. Otherwise, they’ve just lost their minds.
First there was the General Motors ad proposal that showed former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi driving a car with a trunk full of bound and gagged young women. Given the charges facing Signor Berlusconi it’s probably best that the ad was never intended to actually be used. Sadly someone decided to share it anyway and the creative team behind it all lost their jobs.
So you probably think that the ad folks working for GM will have learned their lesson and stick to the safe and boring road. You don’t know many creative people, do you? The latest gaffe involves a kind of 1930’s retro look spot that features a song that makes some very out dated racist statements about Chinese people. That would be bad enough until you discover that it was running worldwide including parts of China. Nice.
But it is Hyundai that is the real head scratcher. Someone greenlighted an ad that is trying to tout the green qualities of the new ix35. Only water vapor comes out of the exhaust pipe. So what did they go for? A man failing to commit suicide by breathing that exhaust. I am absolutely serious. A whole bunch of someones looked at that ad and said “Looks great to me”.
All I can say is What Were You Thinking?
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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