Direct TV encourages bad parenting
I’m amazed more people aren’t outraged by this commercial.
The ad I’m referring to is the Direct TV DVR spot (watch it here) in which a kid and his father bond while stopping and starting the action of a football game on TV. I saw it most recently while Eli Manning was throwing the Giants’ season away.
Here’s the setup. A kid — let’s say 3 or 4 years old — enters a room where his father is watching a football game and asks, “Dad, can you read me a story?” After noticing his father’s lack of interest in his query, he turns his head to find out what has sucked away his love and affection and remarks, “Oh, football.” But the worst is yet to come.
The father then realizes that his son’s faith in his one-time hero has totally been crushed, so he quickly tries to recover it by showing him that he can freeze time using his new Direct TV technology. That would have been fine and all if he then went on to read the story the kid had been shoving in his face. Instead, the two then continue to stop and start the action — a feature that can’t be exciting for more than 10 seconds, even for a 3- or 4-year-old kid.
And the way the father shows his kid this feature is such bullshit. Instead of telling him that it’s the remote that causes it to work, he tries to impress his son by snapping his fingers and freezing time with the remote simultaneously, but the remote is obviously hidden. (The ad itself is called “Magic Dad”) Then he convinces his kid that he too can do this by snapping his fingers and the kid is overcome with joy when it works.
Before we move on, I must come clean about something. When I was a kid, I too thought I could freeze time with my fingers, but it wasn’t because of bad parenting. For some reason I was a fan of the TV show “Out of This World.”
No thanks to Evie, I learned early that the freezing time business was bullshit. The kid in this commercial might not be so lucky. How long is the father going to let the charade go on before he breaks the hard truth to his son? This kid is just gonna go around everywhere thinking he can snap his fingers to stop the clock. “Oh, I’m struggling on this math test, so let me freeze time and cheat off my neighbor.” What a horrible lesson.
Perhaps the father eventually does tell his kid the truth about the remote, and maybe once the two get tired of of freezing time on some throwaway football game, the dad does the honorable thing and reads the kid the story. But they don’t leave you with that impression. The ad closes with them just fucking snapping away.
January 8th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
holy christ, are you sensitive! i’d hate to be around you during the holidays with all those commercials propagating the the existence of santa.
January 8th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
I still try to freeze time every once in a while by putting my index fingers together. It’s only worked once.
January 8th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
The real appalling thing is that Direct TV is stressing the “pausing live TV” angle so much. The technology has been out a while folks. Cell phone commercials aren’t like, “hey, look, you can carry it anywhere!”
Also, I think that broke my needless rant record by 150 words…..and I get mad about some stupid shit. My uncle used to try to convince me he was God. Not like, once…it was a running thing for about 6 months. I was young enough to have to think about it. He was doing some insane shit, like making stuff disappear. Upon reflection, I think it went up his sleave.
I’m sure the kid will be fine, like me.
January 8th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
I do think the Dad abandoning the idea of reading the kid a story is pathetic though. The pausing thing I don’t have a problem with. If they think that will sell the product….. But no need to dis the kid’s attempt to get his learn on.
January 8th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
hilarious take on the ad. didn’t look at it like that when i saw it (maybe i was laughing too hard at eli, or tivo’ing those interceptions over and over), but you are totally right. the kid is like, “oh, football”.. like he’s been ignored time and time again by his football-zombie dad. why even bother asking him if he can read the book? maybe directv will come up with a book-reading audio channel to combat this problem.. look! i can read the book without moving my lips!
January 9th, 2006 at 2:46 am
“Oh, football….”
I’m more concerned that the kid wasn’t interested in the football game!
January 9th, 2006 at 7:47 am
yeah Tim, i agree. the real worry is the kid doesn’t want to watch football. what kid doesn’t like football?
the fuckin kid should be in bed.
Jeff, that is some freaky shit.
January 9th, 2006 at 10:26 am
I actually had the same thoughts about this commercial when I saw it during the Steelers game while ignoring the two-year old I was supposed to be watching.