If any of you have been watching Animal Planet or HGTV lately, you've seen the commercial: the one where Sarah McLachlan is mournfully singing about the eyes of an angel, and they're showing videos and photos of abused animals. Tiny little innocent puppies and kittens in bad shape. It's so freaking depressing, I'm not even going to link to it because I don't want to inflict that sadness on my friends. If you're that desperate to be suicidal, you can google it yourself.
Of course I think it's great that she's using her star power and talents to help such an awesome cause, but does it have to be so freaking sad?
I mean, seriously. Every time I see this commercial (which is like every 20 minutes on HGTV), and now every time I hear this song, I want to go hug my kitties, give all my money to an animal shelter, and fling myself off of a cliff. In that order. The other half and I will go sprinting from another room for the remote to change the channel when this video comes on, just hearing it bothers us so much.
I hate this commercial. I mean, maybe it makes some people give money, which is great, but to sensitive people like me (by which I mean mostly 5-year old girls), this commercial seriously gives nightmares and emotional damage.
Does anybody think this is effective, if it's so repulsive you can't watch it long enough to get the number to donate?
Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way about these commercials.
ReplyDeleteI think that you're pretty much right on-target with your line of thought: That the general public tends to be so much less sensititve that the only thing that will make them pay any attention to what's going on is shockingly sad pictures.
What bothers me is that people appear to have become so detached from animals that it takes a commercial like this to grab their attention. I've heard from way too many people the comment, "Well, it's just an animal."