European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 27, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes wednesday january 27.1968 Colum i today s crossword Foo flaw s efe to ads score 0 by Russell Baker new York watching televised professional football during the playoffs leading up to i Sun Day s super bowl i was astonished by the High vol ume of commercials for goods and services which Are of Little or no use to most football  revived a question that has nagged me since copier on a desk. I have met some people whose Iota probably include the task of buying copying a clinics for their companies and maybe their decisions Are influenced by Kyj Ugrian s commercial though it items  you Are the person in charge of buying copying machines for consolidated International Are your Pur chasing decisions really affected by the Nice warm feel ing you gel from an actor in a commercial far he things on second thought it does t seem so unlikely. There has to be some explanation Why the japanese were Able to make o t so easily with the store. Is ill the puzzling question remains Why buy those expensive to commercials id advertise something the mass audience does t buy in the past. To com Mercial have pushed stuff for which a Large percent age of the audience regularly buys breakfast Cereal soap canned soup Beer toothpaste cars Mouth Wasli Patent Medicine the kind of thing you might find around the  no House i know will you find a copying machine. Nor will you find Many people who can afford inc services of Hewlett Packard an outfit whose commercials scorned to outnumber id  sunday football. Two interesting things about these commercials 111 they gave no clue to what the company makes or div. Ii the corporate Quality celebrated in them was chilliness Miner than Klugmann Szuc warmth. If you i Vul know what Hewlett Packard was k-Wletl-1 at Kart obviously did t care. These commercials were Aimi d no inc few who did know. For those few inc Mesuch was thai Hewlett Packard Are so single mind edly obsessed Wilh 1heir work thai they never Stop thinking about inc problems their customers bring in inc company for solution these employees shun social activities in their spare Lime. Solitary activities with High aerobic pay off arc their idea of a Good time. A female employee swims alone in a Pool otherwise empty of people. A male rows alone on a  they enjoying themselves it does t look like it there is something inhuman in the relentless motion with which the inmate swims and in inc Cipres Sion cd features of the Man in his lonely boat. We sign see  Sec they Are not relating As we first thought bul thinking. Thinking intensely. Thinking about their jobs at Hewlett Packard. Thinking about solutions to problems which customers have brought to the company. We grasp this Inith when they cease their Joyless recreation and say what if.?" that what i the to equivalent of the Light bulb thai used to Stone Ever the Heads of comic strip diameters to signify toe birth of an  an average i Hope football watcher i a de pressed by these commercials for Tike the typical Hewlett Packard customer. I suppose i have difficult problem to be solved How to mop huge sheets office and alarmingly heavy icicles from forming every Winter from an awkward Rah Gutter Confluence at roof level in the Back of my House. Though i Don t know anything about howl cart pack Ard Sline of work i a aspect from these commercials thai it solves problems like this ice and Itice business. It Clear however from the Glossy Harvard business school finish on the swimmer and the Rowboat fellow that Only free spending corporations can afford the Cost of Mclain ing those Obs wed employees until one of them suddenly says. What if. Tand so i am reminded once again that despite the diversionary football we live in a country where the Rich gel Richer while the poor gel heavy Iee Ond icicle damage to their roof  is the Point of exposing the  audience to messages like this yes among the  the to set Are undoubtedly two or three dozen great corpor. Does t Hewlett Packard just Telephone them instead of reminding us impecunious million that our gutters could fall before the game is Over it a supposed to be healthy of honest possibly both when nudity went Public and actors started stand ing around on stage and screen without a stitch  was sufficiently of knighted to warn that it would also make us dumber but that seems to be what happened. How else explain the horror stories emanating from the american Campus about College student who can l ill you where the Pacific Ocean is much less Japan when Public undress was taboo in the United slates the dumbest kid in fifth Grade could not Only locate the Pacific Ocean bul also pinpoint inc location of several islands in it whose residents wore practically nothing at All. This he knew from studying the National geographic a Magazine considered such hot stuff by the Corduroy knickers set that it was studied Wilh the same intensity a later generation was to lavish on Playboy and a rated movies. If you were curious about How people looked undressed and who want the National geographic was the Basic source of information. In the course of the research a Good Deal of other information rubbed Olathe Page onto inc student. By contrast half the California College student examined in a recent study did not know where Japan was. Forty five percent of Maryland High school seniors who were asked recently o Pencil the United states in on a world map could t do  Suc is about Trade Oil. Grant for argument s Sake that shedding the taboo against commonplace nudity made for a healthier More honest society. 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