Monday, January 18, 2016

Another Reason I Don't Like The Term "Settlers"

There's a TV ad with the line:

We’re settlers son, we settle for things,” 

That is spoken by a father explaining to his son who asks why they can’t have DirecTV like their modern neighbors. 

As criticized

The campaign plays on the word, presenting a frontier-era family in a suburban neighborhood who stick to antiquated ways such as a horse-and-buggy and, oh yeah, cable.

Another opinion:

The ad is funny...But the real emotion of this spot goes much deeper than cheap laughs. The real emotion here is assumptive embarrassment, a weapon DirecTV has been using for years. This particular ad suggests that anyone using cable is that Dad on a tractor in his front yard, a settler.  Of course the creative idea is way over the top, but that makes the point sticky and tougher to take as a cable patron. And I’d wager some pretty hefty percentage of the cable viewers paused for a second and wondered, “Am I settling with cable?”

I am not embarrassed to reside in my ancestral patrimony, my historic homeland.  And if a certain term contributes to that perspective, then I'll be a resident, a revenant.

^

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

that settles it