Fantasy Land

This commercial is a work of subtle deception. It appears to be a celebration of one thing, while it is actually a celebration of the exact opposite. Most Americans, if asked directly, would still agree with the idea that riches, fame, and influence should come not from blood lines, or political power, but from talent and virtue. They still retain some inarticulate grasp of the connection between this being the nation’s governing social principle and it’s meteoric rise from a colony on a wilderness continent to the most industrialized, technologically-advanced, wealthiest, and peaceful nation in history. However, because this isn’t America’s governing social principle anymore (precisely because it has always been left unarticulated as just a feeling or a tradition or the will of a god), those same Americans, if asked, would also agree with (or at least fear to disagree with) today’s prevailing idea: that riches, fame, and influence should be shared equally amongst “everyone.”

This commercial is poking fun at talent competition shows such as American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance?, and The X Factor. It is implying that such shows are not actually tests of talent and virtue, but rather arbitrary displays of power by those who judge them (as if the “power” that a private entity has to not associate with someone is at all the same as the power a government – such as a monarchy – has to compel that same person to do something).

Accomplished entertainer Elton John plays the role of a judge slash monarch, who “unfairly” withholds rewards from the untalented and only begrudgingly gives them to the talented. The insinuation, of course, is that if you lack the virtue and talent to remain in contests such as talent searches, you should be just as entitled to the rewards of such competitions as those who do not lack. The X Factor winner Melanie Amaro addresses this “injustice” by “setting things straight.” She “virtuously” devalues her own accomplishments by making the rewards of such accomplishments available to “all.” The insinuation of this is that at some point in their past, accomplished people like John and Amaro must have just been “lucky” (ie: that they did not earn their values, but were rather just the beneficiaries of an ultimately arbitrary, monarch-like “rule” of the entertainment industry by other accomplished people). In other words: Amaro “gets it” – self-sacrifice to the weaker is the hallmark of virtue – while John does not (ie: he doesn’t realize that the rewards he so begrudgingly gives to the talented are not his to give, since the very act of possessing them – despite having earned them – makes him immoral).

What this commercial does is present itself as a condemnation of the truly immoral state of affairs whereby truly untalented and non-virtuous people decide the fates of everyone else simply because their blood lines or ruthlessness empowers them to, but what it actually does is celebrate such an arrangement by implying that talent and virtue should be irrelevant to one’s fate, and all that should matter is that one exist (ie: that you were born). In other words: even if you don’t have what it takes to deserve increased wealth, fame, or influence, the fact that you are a member of “the country” entitles you take from those who do have it. How, in practice, is this any different than the tactics of some parasite who calls himself a king? Furthermore, how, in principle, is a state of affairs where what’s yours isn’t yours, but “the community’s” to dispose of as it sees fit, any different than being preyed upon by a king?

Pepsi is attempting to cast it’s net as widely as possible with this commercial. They wish to offend as few people as possible. Whoever still agrees with the original American social principle, unless they think about it too closely, will perceive it to be a celebration of that – while at the same time whoever disagrees with that principle and embraces the one which dominates contemporary culture will subconsciously sense that it is praising that and thus find it appealing. It is a cynical, pragmatic move by a large, highly-leveraged company stuck in a precarious, unpredictable political-economic environment where their only interest can be the short-term, and where their immediate survival depends upon a willingness to do whatever it takes – no matter how twisted and perverse – to survive the moment.

The Charade Club

Why is it laughably contemptable when Justin Verlander (fictitiously) attempts to be rewarded for something he hasn’t done, but perfectly acceptable when some person playing a video game attempts to (not really) do something only the likes of Justin Verlander can do? Even if you “pitch” a perfect game in video game, and even if you win $1,000,000 and the hand of a pretty girl because of it, you aren’t Justin Verlander. Your accomplishment is nowhere near his accomplishments; the fact that he hasn’t (yet) pitched a real perfect game notwithstanding. Why is it okay in this day and age to openly degrade the truly heroic just so that the truly non-heroic can feel better?

Justin Verlander, like virtually everyone else who sees this ad, fails to see the wider philosophical implications of it and thinks it’s just a harmless joke (hence his participation in it), but that doesn’t change the fact that this ad is bad for everyone involved. Verlander deserves the accolades and admiration he has. He’s earned it. If the trend he is attempting to exploit for the sake of some short-term gain continues over the long-term, eventually all he will receive from people – people who have been made to believe that faking an accomplishment is just as good as actually doing it – is at best indifference, and at worst outright hostility (he would be a reproach). Similarly, those who allow themselves to believe that it’s okay to seek rewards for achievements they haven’t earned will eventually lose whatever motivation they had to cultivate or maintain whatever skills or potential they might have had to reach real goals. They will be forever searching for the easy path to success – even if their ambition never compels them to, they will – as mentioned – grow to hate the likes of Justin Verlander because he reminds them that this is all they deem themselves worthy of. Finally, of course, there is the effect that the method of thinking which this ad exploits will have upon the very people who made it: 2K Sports. Their purpose is to make a product, trade it, and therefore profit and live. In the short-term, this type of manipulative behavior will work. In the long-term, however, all it will do is to ensure their financial ruin. The reason for this is that luxuries such as video games can only exist if there is enough wealth (and resultant free time) in the society to allow for it. If people are encouraged to never achieve real goals – if they are told over and over again that fake goals work just as well – eventually they will take it to heart. As a result, they will not achieve and produce, and their standard of living will drop. When this happens, the first things to go from their lives will be their luxuries (ie: things like their video games).

Justin Verlander doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a baseball player. He can’t be disliked because of his inability to grasp the vicious evil – the antipode of everything he and his life implicitly endorse – which he is helping perpetuate. Similarly, 2K Sports is just one single business in a much larger macroeconomic environment. An extremely unpredictable, unstable, politically-twisted macroeconomic environment. One where the “long-term” doesn’t exist. One where all that any given person or company can reasonably do is focus on the short-term exclusively, and do whatever they must to meet their particular goals. Nevertheless, despite these facts, if exceptional achievers like Verlander and the producers of technological marvels such as modern videos games become rarer and rarer or even cease to exist, they will have no right to claim that they don’t understand why it has happened (although they will probably try).

Mystics of Muscle

“When you live in a rational society, where men are free [to think and] to trade, you receive an incalculable bonus: the material value of your work is determined not only by your effort, but by the effort of the best productive minds who exist in the world around you.

When you work in a modern factory, you are paid, not only for your labor, but for all the productive genius which has made that factory possible: for the work of the industrialist who built it, for the work of the investor who saved the money to risk on the untried and the new, for the work of the engineer who designed the machines of which you are pushing the levers, for the work of the inventor who created the product which you spend your time on making, for the work of the scientist who discovered the laws that went into the making of that product, for the work of the philosopher who taught men how to think and whom you spend your time denouncing.

The machine, the frozen form of a living intelligence, is the power that expands the potential of your life by raising the productivity of your time. If you worked as a blacksmith in the mystics’ Middle Ages, the whole of your earning capacity would consist of an iron bar produced by your hands in days and days of effort. How many tons of rail do you produce per day if you work for [a thinker]? Would you dare to claim that the size of your pay check was created solely by your physical labor and that those rails were the product of your muscles? The standard of living of that blacksmith is all that your muscles are worth; the rest is a gift from [those who choose not to sweat, but to think]. – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

No one – not even in this day and age – would openly, explicitly make such a claim; but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t the belief that most people implicitly hold. Gillette knows this, and so for the sake of it’s short-term interests (and ironically, directly at the expense of it’s long-term), it has chosen to pander to this sentiment. In other words: Gillette has chosen not to think about the consequences of further inculcating a Marxist belief amongst the general (voting) public. When that belief leads to even more oppression of business and trade – under the premise that the thinking that goes into it is superfluous and thus can easily be done instead by a relative few central-planners – the people of the Gillette Corporation will have no moral right to complain about the fact that all of the sweat in the world (ie: trying to remain in business despite these impediments) is not allowing them to be profitable.

Character Fabrication

Effectively, there is no difference between doing the right thing simply because someone is looking – and you’re afraid of the consequences of not doing it – and doing the right thing just so that you can later on tell people about it – even though they haven’t asked. Both are still distinct from doing the right thing just because it’s what you know to be right and it’s what you want to do. What Chrysler is doing here, in this ad, is attempting to dispel it’s still-present (and still-deserved) reputation as being an unprincipled, politically-connected company without having to come right out and say that that’s what they’re doing (since to do so would make give it no hope of being convincing).

If Chrysler really were composed of people who found it impossible to bring themselves to do things besides produce a valuable and superior product in order to make a profit, they wouldn’t have to say it (and especially not by means of saying that they’re not saying it while they’re saying it). Instead, they would just let the intelligence of the consumer take it’s natural course. They would be patient and wait, confident in the knowledge that because their product is better than it’s competitors, it will eventually be recognized as such and embraced.

This commercial – while somewhat informative – is ultimately a crass attempt to manipulate the consumer into returning to Chrysler an undeserved esteem simply because they know that – given their behavior in the past – they don’t deserve the business of the demographic this ad is trying to reach (the morally conscientious); despite the fact that their product might actually be superior.