Monday, June 26, 2006

Scarred For Life

There is a commercial on TV that I have seen several times and just this morning it struck me that perhaps something was amiss behind the scenes. In the commercial is a little girl with a 2 inch long burn on her face. She goes on to say that if you use this special cream you can reduce scarring. Flash forward 2 weeks and her scar is noticeably diminished.

Here's where I thought to myself, "Are they advertising for kids with burns on their faces to come and audition for these commercials?" I can just picture a stage mom reading the paper and coming across an ad that reads, "Wanted. Adorable children with great acting chops. Must have 2 inch burn mark on left cheek." The mother's eyes widen as she turns and calls to her daughter, "Joanie! Come here sweetie! And bring the curling iron with you!"

They have a similiar commercial for a kid with scraped up knees. "Donnie, do you want skateboard lessons? ", a father asks. "What do you need pads for? Don't be such a pansy." I really hope this is not how these things go down.

5 comments:

kroushlconflict said...

Maybe it's just make-up? But that would be false advertising!

You know what commercial has scarred me for life? The one about the toenail fungus. It has a little cartoon fungus dude that pops off someone's toenail & crawls underneath. YEEEAACH.

I've actually thought about emailing the company to tell them how repulsive that is. Angry email has been my new hobby lately.

Knightridge Overlook said...

I have a friend who is a modeling agent. If you wanted a one-legged Asian Grandmother with a mole on her left arm, he would probably know one. He might well have a picture of her in his files.

I'm not really kidding in that last paragraph, but even more likely is that they got in touch with a hospital or burn clinic. Kids do get burned a lot. While it's disturbing to think about kids getting burned, among people who have a particular physical situation, they're generally grateful for the utility of people who are making useful accomodations for them, like a product that actually does minimize the visual impact of a scar.

Far worse is being ignored - I just watched an episode of that show on TV with the family of dwarves (Little People). The husband/father wants to redo their kitchen and basement for their height, but the building code requires, for example, that hand railings be at 36 inches, way above what's useful for the people who actually live there. Weird.

Michael K said...

Oh, yes! The toe fungus guy has got to go! The thought of having my toenail peeled back makes me cringe horribly. Did you see Syriana when he gets his fingernails ripped off? Same thing here. Gah.

Michael K said...

I don't know if I've seen the dwarf show. Was it about the photographer and his wife who have a standard size daughter?

I met them in San Francisco a few years ago. They were walking down the street and I recognized them. I came up and told him I liked his work. He was kind of stand offish but his wife was very charming.

I know it is wrong but I have been fascinated by little people since I was very young. I think it might be cuz I had a friend in school who was a dwarf and she died very young due to complications from her condition. Crowding of the organs or something is what I was told.

Anyway, any time I meet a little person I want to be their friend. They might be a total asshole but there I am trying to make friends with them because they remind me of my old friend. Guess I'm weird.

Knightridge Overlook said...

Not sure about his job or the daughter. They have two sons, one average height, one a dwarf. H & W are both dwarves.

By the way, be sure to grab your chance at a free beer.