Hallmark Thinks You're Stupid
Hallmark is advertising its new recordable Mother's Day cards on television, what with Mother's Day coming in seven days and all. The cards allow you to record a 10-second greeting before playing an apparently appropriate song.
The commercial features a young woman who sends her mother a card that plays "Unbelievable" by the group EMF (see the card in question at this page).
I see nothing wring in spending $6 plus tax to do something nice for your mother. But, frankly, I think that my mother would be insulted by a song that featured these choice lyrics:
You burden me with your questions
You'd have me tell no lies
You're always asking what it's all about
But don't listen to my replies
You say to me I don't talk enough
But when I do I'm a fool
These times I've spent, I've realized
I'm going to shoot through
And leave you
The things, you say
Your purple prose just gives you away
The things, you say
You're unbelievable
And that's just in the first verse and chorus; they leave out both the four-letter f-word and the sample from notable pro-feminist fellow Andrew Dice Clay.
Basically, someone at Hallmark thinks that a kicking hook is all that either you or your mother will remember from this song, and that the actual meaning—that you are unbelievable, and not in a good way—will escape the both of you.
Or perhaps someone at Hallmark thinks that you know exactly what you are doing and that you Mom will be none the wiser. But that's an awfully cynical tack to take on Mother's Day, is it not?
Labels: EMF, misuse of pop music, stupid advertising tricks, Unbelievable
