Opinion: 'Brad Pitt' makes NCAA appearance

March Madness

Like most people with a pulse, I follow the NCAA basketball tournament. TV coverage of one game in particular featured a perhaps unintended reference to one of Springfield’s most prominent native sons. If you watched the game, you couldn’t have missed it.

When games are televised, the score is placed at the bottom of the screen with the teams’ names abbreviated. The game in question was between Bradley University and Pittsburgh University. The abbreviations of the two read “Brad Pitt.” Not that the Springfield native needs any publicity at this time, but he got it during the game.

Mixed messages

A trend may be in the making. Some men doing TV ads for car dealers are speaking quietly. That’s not all: I have noticed that at least four car dealers are now using women as spokespersons. Could it be that someone has figured out that screaming at people as though they are deaf doesn’t necessarily sell cars?

The female voices in the commercials I have heard are enthusiastic about the products without sending me searching for the mute button. If it is a trend, I think I like it.

On the subject of car ads, TV commercials invariably demonstrate their cars’ speed and handling capabilities by using spectacular driving moves. It should be obvious to even the densest among us that these maneuvers are intended to sell cars.

Regardless of the nature of the daring gimmick, a notice will appear in small print declaring it was performed by a professional driver on a closed course. In other words, don’t you try it.

If I understand the message, it is: “You shouldn’t drive this car for the reasons we give you to buy it.”

That’s like the pharmaceutical commercials where you are told that some miracle medicine will cure whatever ails you, concluding with a warning that it could kill you. Mixed messages, indeed.

Interpretation

I understand that folk singer Bob Dylan is coming to the Shrine Mosque in Springfield on April 22. Doubtless his admirers are excited about the concert. No sarcasm is intended with this question: Will there be an interpreter on hand to translate his songs into a known language? I ask because I have watched him on TV and couldn’t understand a single word he sang.

Attend an Italian opera and you don’t expect to understand the lyrics, unless you speak Italian. At a concert of an American singer you probably assume he will sing in English. As I said, no sarcasm intended. Well, maybe just a tiny bit.

“Cheap” gasoline

No doubt about it, increases in the price of gasoline send us off into the stratosphere; however, we seem to quickly recover from gas pump price shock.

In the middle of February, regular unleaded gas prices were at about $2 a gallon, which seemed high. Now, with the price higher, the February price seems to be a huge bargain.

As I write this, the price of regular unleaded gas is about $2.36 a gallon. Just today, I saw gas advertised for 2 cents less. “What a bargain!” I thought.

By the time you read this, the price may be lower. If so, it will be a terrific bargain. If the price goes up a nickel or so, the old price will be a bargain.

Some will be sorry they didn’t fill up with the “cheap” stuff.

Cruising

This bit of frivolity came to me while watching a TV commercial for a luxury ship. For some reason, my slightly off-center psyche conjured up this question: If luxury liner employees, while attending a convention, got rowdy and misbehaved, would this be a convention of crude cruise crews? Try repeating that three times really fast.

Thankfully, that’s all I have on my mind at the moment.

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.[[In-content Ad]]