Tag Archives: dandelions

The Reason Why People Think Marketing is Evil

I saw two commercials lately that were so over-the-top awful I couldn’t help but blog about them several days later (if I manage to come back to something days later to blog about, it must have dug into my brain). They’re not awful in a traditional poorly done sense, they’re awful in a oozing with horrid worldviews way.

Scotts Good Neighbor
The first commercial is for Scotts Turf Builder with Weed Control. I see it pretty much every time I watch NASCAR or hockey, which apparently means its targeted at sports-minded men, so let the stereotypes roll on. The commercial shows a young man talking about his inability to keep his lawn looking nice and how much he wants to please his neighbors with a green, weed-free lawn. He talks about the shame of having the worst lawn on the block and sending dandelion seeds throughout the neighborhood. Scotts comes to the rescue and the guy can hold his head high. His wife talks about how now the neighbors smile at them because their yard is so nice.

Now granted I’m pretty anti-lawn care. I’m the first to admit that I like dandelions and I don’t care how my yard looks. But is a weed-free yard really make a good neighbor? Last time I checked being a good neighbor was about helping each other out and not being the jackass on the block. It’s loaning a cup of sugar or shoveling a driveway or dog-sitting. You don’t need a perfect lawn to get your neighbors to smile at you. Try being nice.

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Dandelions are Beautiful

You say the dandelion is a weed. You ignore its simple beauty, and classify it as a pest. You call it ugly. But it’s not just about a dandelion. Look at the children. They enter school and life so vibrant and open, and in a few short years they’re scared. They won’t draw some wild-eyed, fanciful picture anymore. They’re convinced that they must color within the lines. They think the dandelion is a weed too. But it doesn’t stop there. Look at the young woman. She sees her body in the mirror, and images from magazines in her mind. She’s no cover girl. The two don’t match. She must be worthless. Society has crushed her concept of beauty, and now she no longer fits that category. An inner battle is fought, and too often her body will lose, and the pounds will come dangerously off. She thinks the dandelion is a weed too.

But don’t they see? It’s a magnificent flower. It adds balance to the vast green field and puts amazing splotches of color everywhere. A dandelion isn’t a weed.

“Lord, search my heart, Create in me something clean. Dandelions–You see flowers in these weeds.” (“Dandelions” by Five Iron Frenzy)