Moral propaganda
Thank god we have the internet. I was just sitting here wondering if my family-less, sports car driving, single lifestyle was a huge mistake. And, thanks to some great internet propaganda, I now know that it is!
Not long ago, a YouTube video portraying a married couple (and their young children) rapping while dancing around their minivan entered the internet meme realm. This (not surprisingly) was a commercial for Toyota’s latest minivan, the family-moving-grocery-getter, or whatever it’s called.
Following on the heels of the Swagger Wagon’s success, a video called “Dad Life” was released and quickly found internet success. The source of this video, however was a bit more cryptic. The minivan used in the video is never mentioned by brand or model, the dad’s aren’t donning similar khaki pants or shoes, in fact no brands are really mentioned at all. There is no logo, website ad, watermark, or other indication of the creators anywhere in the video, so finding the source required a little digging.
As it turns out the Dad Life video was paid for/recorded by/produced by/somehow involved with a religious organization in Tulsa OK called Church on the Move.
But I digress.
Let’s get to the meat of this post: These two videos symbolize (to me anyway) a continuing effort in some kind of “moral propaganda” assumingly centered around the belief that the morality of the world is in a steady decline, and making responsibility and “moral behavior” more appealing to the uneducated masses will sway this decline back toward the “positive”, bring people back to the church, and set some kind of example for youngsters.
For the most part, I have no problem with what they’re trying to do here. Bringing the moral standard of behavior up a notch or two probably isn’t a bad idea. I’m not a huge proponent of church, but for those of you who are, great! Get back in there and pray for the rest of us.
So, crank up that morality! But, don’t fool yourselves. Remember that propaganda is disinformation. If minivans and family vacations and diaper changes were as cool as these videos would have you believe, we wouldn’t have James Bond, or Playboy magazine, or “The most interesting man in the world” commercials.
