Target's Christmas Ad

The Christmas commercial for Target this year is actually quite disturbing.



It seems to be that the family has died and gone to Purgatory where they're doomed to spend the rest of eternity celebrating Christmas every single day ... actually, it could well be that the parents are the ones who died and are now in purgatory. The kids with them are a part of Purgatory, which is why they're always so excited to find that it's Christmas day while the parents look bored and resigned to the whole thing.

It also explains why it's just the four of them Christmas after Christmas.

That is why only items like the clothes and cushions change constantly while the rest of the house remains exactly the same.

Which then begs the question, who is Target aiming this commercial at?

Surely not the poor souls trapped in Purgatory. Even those suckers deserve a break from TV commercials.

So maybe the bored and desperate housewives who just want to escape the life they have built up around them. Although implying that a housewife's (even that of a bored and desperate one) life is the same thing as Purgatory has got to be more than a little insulting to someone there. Not to mention what it's doing psychologically to all those bored, desperate housewives; no doubt sinking them further into the funk because there is no escape from it because everyone else feels the same way.

But this commercial does pave the way for a sweet set of ads for next year: "The end of the world is coming. Didn't repent in time, then Target has all of your Purgatory needs with massive savings!"

The Dangers of Living in Suburbia

If rewatching season one of Desperate Housewives has taught me anything (besides I watched a lot more of it on TV than I thought) is that suburbia seems to be one of the most dangerous places to live.

Ok, well, that may be a slight exaggeration. It's not like people were breaking into their houses every other week and murdering the inhabitants of Wisteria Lane ... hmmm.

So there were break ins every other week. And there were even a couple of attacks as well. But this was mostly done by the lovely, righteous people of Wisteria Lane.

Suburbia isn't as safe as people like to believe it is!

It seems that people in suburbia have to lock all of their doors and windows, and even that's not quite enough to prevent nosey neighbours breaking in and snooping around. It's a good thing that most of the time they intruders are only after some juicy piece of gossip to share with their neighbours.

Now I don't exactly live in a fantastic part of town (I'm pretty sure there's a gang hq nearby). And yet, I don't really feel the need to tightly lock up the house with motion activated laser guns all over the house. And yet, there has been no break in ... as far as I know. Maybe there was a break in by a nosey neighbour who wanted something to gossip about.

Maybe it's Hollywood exaggerating the rate of break ins in suburbia. Or maybe Hollywood isn't. All I know is that suburbia is a dangerous place to live, which Desperate Housewives clearly shows.