Saturday, December 6, 2008

Stretching the holiday message beyond resonation

As the holidays near the intensity of the "buy this for your loved one" messages are all but tattooed onto everyone's forehead. Some products lend themselves to the messages, toys, flowers, jewelry, food stuffs, etc. Others are a stretch, cars, homes and other pricey ticket items that usually need consensus from your loved one and then there are the "products" which force themselves into the holiday banter, like prostate exams.

Last night while watching TV a commercial came on with an spokesperson decked out in all her holiday glory urging women to "buy" the men in their lives a prostate exam, after all what better way to say I love ALL of you (their words, not mine). I don't deny the importance of prostate exams and men do tend to need urging to get them to the doctors, but positioning it among the holiday cheer is just wrong. I'd say save the message for New Year's resolutions instead. It would resonate more and not make a fir trimmed mockery of the importance of the, sometimes, life-saving exam.

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