RightWingDeathBogan

Coming Soon To Channel 10.

I don't watch a lot of tv these days, and when I do, it's usually dvds, videos, or NCIS. Most of the time, I'm either at the pc, pottering around or reading real books. The ones made from dead trees.

So I'm watching NCIS and the ad break comes on. It starts off innocently enough... an airplane rising up into a clear blue sky, Moonlight Sonata playing gently, and fade to the interior of the plane.

Now this is paraphrasing, because I don't have a tivo or a dvd recorder to grab the trailer, nor have I been able to find it online yet to download for your viewing pleasure.

The words appear on the screen... "There are 50 000 flights every (each?) day."

I'm thinking, "yeah, what of it?"

Moonlight Sonata continues playing, there is no dialogue, but a few more words appear. The pictures of people inside the plane continue to fade up and down on the screen, with the caption, "These people picked/had/got a bad flight."

More of the same, and finally, "What would you do?"

It's an ad for United 93 on Oct 17th.

Now, obviously, there is something wrong with me, because I found this trailer rather offensive. These people just happened to pick a "bad flight?" Is that like choosing the wrong movie to watch, or buying a Toyota when you really want a Mazda? You know, just one of those things.

I'm aware that I'm possibly overreacting, but what happened on September the 11th, 201, was not an accident. It was not one of those things and it was most definitely not a bad flight.

That's worse than calling the Hindenberg tragedy a bit of a bummer for those involved.

What happened that day was premeditated murder by people determined to do a lot of damage.

I do concede that one of the difficult issues in these days of keeping everything as light and unthreatening as possible is: how do you market such a film?

How do you let people know it's on the teev so that your advertisers can get their money's worth of viewers? How on earth does such weighty subject matter actually fit in with programming schedules these days?

Especially when we consider that it's now seven years on from the event.

It's safe to say that I won't be watching it - I have a copy unwatched in my dvd library. I find the events of that day far too distressing, so it will be a bit longer before I can sit down to it.

Also, it's not something I would prefer to be alone when I see it, and I doubt my housemate will sit with me.

In the meantime, I seethe at an advertisement for a film about a planeload of people smashed into a Pennsylvania field.

Because, you know, it wasn't a good day for flying.








(crossposted at AWH

posted by Nilk @ 11:07 PM