Wednesday, July 31, 2019

The Problem with Advertising

Every time I drive by one of those Goodwill trucks with the neat message on the back I can't help but be amused at its advertising, which looked at objectively could apply to any situation.  Look at the message and see if you can guess where my mind goes:

[Photo credit: Hannah Scofield]

It is that last phrase in particular: And Help Change Lives.  Have you ever considered how many ways there are to change people's lives?  Take the following for instance:







Now of course I could go on and on and come up with all sorts of serious and ridiculous things that would all help change people's lives in some way either for better or for worse.  Surely we all know that changing lives is not necessarily a bad thing, although some people do seem to subscribe to the idea that change of itself is good.  I will in the face of that perspective still uphold that change is only good if directed towards a good.  And I will point out the above examples to uphold my claim.

Returning, however, to the substance of this post: I doubt Goodwill's advertising department will much care about my destruction of their motto on the basis of literal humor.  Still, I doubt they took those such as I into consideration when they chose it....



What would you put there?