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Tag Archives: Commercials

Tears of an Uncommon Indian

27 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by danielwalldammit in Native American Themes, Uncommonday, White Indians

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Authenticity, Commercials, Crying Indian, Environmentalism, Indian, Iron Eyes Cody, Mother Night, Pollution, White Indians

ironeyes_codyFew commercials have been as memorable as the ‘crying Indian’ from the seventies, and I reckon few commercials have had more impact on people’s behavior. The crying Indian left quite a mark on American popular culture.

I was a kid when I first saw that image, and I distinctly recall the sense of shame I felt upon watching it. It wasn’t just that I’d seen people littering like that, I’d done it myself. In fact, littering was pretty damned common back in those days, hence the commercial! I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest the image of that crying Indian moved a lot of people to rethink their behavior.

Some of it anyway.

So, I was pretty damned surprised to learn many years later that the crying Indian belonged to a rather unusual tribe. He was Italian. ‘Iron Eyes Cody’ was born Espera Oscar de Corti. He had been playing Indian parts in the movies ever since the 1930s. Cody claimed Cherokee and Cree ancestry during much of that time, but this appears to have been a fabrication.

It’s tempting to think of Cody as an outright fraud, but that doesn’t begin to cover the facts of the matter. By all accounts, he seems to have actually lived the life he proclaimed. Cody married a native woman and adopted native children. He assumed a Native American identity on and off-screen, supported native causes, and essentially became the role he played in real life. Just what the process might have been in his own mind is something of an open question at this point, albeit one that most of us will never have an answer to. He is a rather successful example of a white Indian, a non-Indian who went native, so to speak.

One could well wish the ‘crying Indian’ had been a ‘real Indian’, and it’s hard not to feel a little betrayed to learn the truth of Cody’s ancestry, and yet he still remains a sympathetic figure. It’s tough to let him off the hook entirely for his self-presentation, but it’s also tough to be too hard on him for it. His story reminds me of an old line from Kurt Vonnegut’s book Mother Night; “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

By that standard I’d say Cody did pretty well in life.

***

The photo above was taken from Cody’s obituary in the Los Angeles Times. Cody has his own Snopes page of course, and the Wiki article on him isn’t bad. Findagrave also has a decent write-up.  It’s interesting to note that these sources provide different times and dates for Cody’s birth, with the L.A. Times piece coming in as the outlier with 1916 and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. The others tell us Cody was born in Louisiana, and in 1904. Cody also features prominently in the documentary, Reel Injun, which is definitely worth a watch.

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A Rambling Little Bit About Rock Lyrics

13 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

American Horse, Beelz, Commercials, No More Tears, Ozzie Osbourne, Rock&Roll, Satan, The Cult, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Warrant

MV5BNzk3OTYyMzc2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk3NTUyMg@@._V1._SY314_CR27,0,214,314_So, I’m tooling around Vegas a couple weeks back, listening to Ozzy’s Boneyard when I hear this story about the origin of No More Tears. Apparently, Ozzy was in the bathtub, so the story goes, when inspiration struck.

I’d always wondered about that.

It’s just a little disappointing, isn’t it? I mean, this is hard rock and metal. All this time, I thought the Devil himself was supposed to be speaking to us through Ozzy. Is he using commercial jingles for a translator? I suppose that could be, right? Perhaps his evil word is too much for the ears of a professional musician, so maybe the Dark Lord has to find a truly evil minion to convey his word to the chosen spokes-stars. When he wants to reach the masses he turns to rock-stars; when he wants to reach rock-stars, Satan turns to advertisers.

…which actually makes sense to me.

19101819-5431-28That aside, you have to wonder if the folks from Warrant ever realized why the phrase “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” resonated with them. Seriously, I can just imagine it. They are sitting their, doing what rockers do when they write lyrics (and seriously, whatever the procedure is, I hope it’s truly depraved), and they are trying to write a song about a brutal murder out in the boonies, and suddenly somebody comes up with this reference to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Does everyone just think it has a nice ring to it?

Or better yet, maybe they knew what the were doing all along! Was that song a stealth history lesson, guys? Subliminal edumacation comin’ through your radio. Cause that would be awesome if it were true.

By ‘awesome’ I might mean ‘awful’.

Really, I’m not sure which.

Speaking of Rockin’ History lessons that almost happened, I can only assume Ian Astbury was well aware of the fact that there really was an American Horse. Given his own love of indigenous themes, I’d guess he was thinking about that very person when he wrote the song American Horse. At the very least, I imagine he was thinking about the old Lakota leader when inspiration for that tune began to take form, but of course “American Horse” isn’t actually about American Horse, at least I don’t think so.

…which come to think of it is probably just as well.

Gosh, Old Nick sure does work in mysterious ways:

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A Magic Box With Many Great Messages

25 Saturday May 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Write Drunk, Edit Stoned

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Commercials, Cooking Shows, Cop Shows, Lucifer's Friend, Reality Television, Ride in the Sky, Spare Time, Survivor, Television

Apparently, my inner child is a little girl

Apparently, my inner child is a little girl

Blessed are the demons in the flat box. Long have I lived without them, but now I sit once more at the feet of their nefarious lessons. They bring me great wisdom. And they bring me reality.

Shall I share that reality with you?

The lessons of the demon-box are many, but today I have learned it takes 3 booms to bang a stump, but afterward you get to piss on it. Just do it quick, because…

Winter is coming!

Food is always better somewhere else, even when that someplace else was where you once were and you didn’t notice while you were there. It’s too late though, don’t bother going back, because the outstanding diners will just be wherever you are whenever you ain’t. Accepting this fact is the beginning of wisdom.

Eric Holder gets a gas face, dammit!

Sit-com humor is largely a function of empathy. When the magic audience in the box laughs, we laugh with them. I can’t think of any other reason we would be laughing at this shit.

Okay 30-Rock gets a pass, and I actually saw an SNL skit that wasn’t entirely bad. There is a medical show that doesn’t make me want to claw my eyes out. The demons show me mercy through these brief moments of respite.

Apparently, there are trees and mountains in Alaska. They are just hiding from me.

Life is always about survival, or at least Survivor. You may think that you are cooking a meal worthy of a four-star restaurant, but no, the real point is that Bubba and Judy want you to vote Latisha off, but she’s ready to make a deal, just like swimming for big sister, and living on a deserted island. You think it’s about securing protein and building a shelter so you don’t die? No, the real danger is that Lori and Jake have formed a team and they are looking at you funny. That is the great trope of life. The greatest of life or death struggles are, at bottom, a sort of popularity contest.

Weddings are bad! …okay, we knew this, but now it’s confirmed.

Iced coffee earns you Sparkles.

Game of Thrones isn’t on nearly enough.

The cameras on a cop’s dash cam are not to be trusted. When the narrator tells me the cop quickly pushes a civilian out of the way of a crash, the camera shows me  the crash ending just before he can get started. When the narrator tells me a perpetrator is attacking the cop, I see a man clearly trying to walk away. I am convinced the magic of these cameras is powerful beyond belief.

Storage units and the people who buy stuff in them are… zzzzzzz. Who would have thunk it?

I sure hope my tiny speaker recharges soon, because I think I’d rather listen to the music demons. Speaking of which…

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The Straight Shooter Who Isn’t!

27 Sunday May 2012

Posted by danielwalldammit in General

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Ads, Advertizing, Alcohol, Bullshit, Commercials, Deception, Drinking, Michael Imperioli, Sopranos

I really love these 1800 Tequilla commercials!

By “love” I probably mean something else. But seriously, how can you not love a commercial that tells someone to drink like a man? A man oughtta dress like a man, and drink like a man, right? Mostly, remember to drink like a man!

Can these guys be just a little more flagrant about their use of peer-pressure? I get that it’s supposed to be fun, and I get that Michael Imperioli is doing a character (and by ‘get’ I probably mean ‘hope’), but this reminds me of the bad-guys in after-school specials and 70s sitcoms. I can practically hear someone in the background telling Greg Brady how all the cool kids are smoking. Seriously boy, drink like a man.

Drink like a man!

But that is nowhere near as golden as this next commercial. See that straight-shootin’ celebrity spokesman there. Proximo (the folks who make 1800 Tequila) wanted a non-nonse kind of guy for this campaign. According to Elwyn Gladstone, Vice President of Marketing; “The roles (Imperioli) has played in his acting career have made him an icon within American popular culture. Just like 1800 Tequila, he’s not going to be pushed around. He tells it like it is.”

I can see what they are talking about too. Other people get distracted by silly fluff and frivolous distractions, but not Imperioli. He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy, one who gets right to the heart of the matter!

…which is exactly why he sells Tequila by talking about cars.

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