I was reading Baseball Prospectus this afternoon, when I came across this:
The Class War Will Be Televised
I was watching the Yankees play the Blue Jays last night, and saw a promo for the Jays that I thought I would share with you. It's a part of a series they've been doing the past couple of years featuring Toronto players using their baseball skills in real life. In this one, a garbage truck pulls up in front of a well-appointed house. The garbage man hops off the back of the truck, grabs a bag out of the can, and hops back on. The home's owner, Jays pitcher A.J. Burnett, comes out the front door in his bathrobe with a small package of garbage and tries to get the garbage man's attention. The garbage man sees him and smirks at him, seemingly enjoying the fact that they are not going to accommodate his wishes and back the truck up to get his aerodynamic package.
The garbage man looks away and is suddenly hit in the head by the package, which falls nicely into the back of the truck. He looks surprised and pissed off, while Burnett looks self-satisfied as he turns and walks back into the house. The screen says "It's Always Game Time." Then they show Burnett striking out three batters on pitches way outside the strike zone.
Realizing that all of the ads in this series have a bit of cruelty in them and that I should probably lighten up about it, there is something particularly disturbing about a rich man abusing someone in one of the least-respected lines of work there is. Being a garbage man is honest work, but let's face it, there isn't much social cachet derived from being in that profession. The fact that the ad takes place in front of a very nice house (not a mansion, really, but a McMansion to be sure), clearly delineating the class lines of the two parties involved. The poorer man's small victory over the rich man is quickly quashed (never mind that if the rich man hadn't been born with the right arm of a god, he'd probably be on the back of that garbage truck himself), clearly sending the message that it's pointless to even try fighting the power. The rich man will always hit you in the head with his garbage in the end.
It was a segment from Jim Baker's September 14th article "Prospectus Matchups: Blowing Hot and Cold," for Baseball Prospectus. I would provide a link to the article but 1. It's a subscription site, so no one else could read it and 2. All the rest of the article is completely about baseball.
Anyway, here's the link to the youtube clip of the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTHksQR1uwk
Any thoughts??
Comments (4)
Dies ist ein großer Ort. Ich möchte hier noch einmal.
Posted by fahrrad | March 8, 2009 10:11 AM
Posted on March 8, 2009 10:11
Dies ist ein großer Ort. Ich möchte hier noch einmal.
Posted by fahrrad | March 8, 2009 10:09 AM
Posted on March 8, 2009 10:09
I agree that this commercial, especially when viewed in conjunction with the others (all which focus on humorous GROUP situations), is problematic not only because of the way that the player treats the sanitation worker, but because of the way the sanitation worker is depicted. I think that the commercial went unnoticed as potentially offensive (I image it wasn't pulled from the air) because of the incorrect portrayal of trash collection as an easy process. The sanitation worker barely looks to be in a uniform (if he is, it looks like he;s wearing it sloppily) he doesn't have to lift the bag; he simply picks it up and gently throws it in the back. He doesn't seem to be working hard, adding to the characterization of him as a potentially jealous guy out to ruin the "richer" guy's day. When considering if another "public service" job could be used in the commercial (I'm not sure it could), I began to consider just how loaded the term "service" is when it comes to discussing Sanitation Departments.
Posted by Casey Lynn | September 18, 2007 11:53 AM
Posted on September 18, 2007 11:53
Thanks for this Alex, it's a great example of popular cultural evaulations and assumptions of the labour of garbage men...a good one for our archive. I'd be interested to know what people from the DSNY think of this!
Posted by Haidy Geismar | September 16, 2007 10:10 AM
Posted on September 16, 2007 10:10