Thursday, February 21, 2008
Orlando wants parents to be their kids’ friends.
Summer’s coming and that means time for America’s tourism boards to start plugging only the good parts of their states. (Yes, I researched them all once for you ungrateful people when I was bored.) One campaign caught my eye in particular for visitorlando.com, (clip via splendads.)
Tried and true formula in full-effect with old pop song behind footage of family fun, topped off with the ‘Be a kid again’ theme we’ve all used at some point. Throw in the Tom Hanks Big camera trick along with some iPod-Cingular reflecting dancing girl and you’re good to go. Maybe I read into it too much, who knows, but one other vibe I got from it: the idea that parents are their kids’ friends, which feels wrong somehow.
As an adult, once you have a few of the little bastards—yes, I can say it, I was one—you know how much your life changes, certainly your idea of what once constituted fun changes. You’re still a parent though, with all the responsibilities and bullshit that comes with it.
Tags: visit Orlando
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
That's interesting. I liked these spots. I thought they were sorta touching -- like, I got misty-eyed when I saw them for the first time. But. I'm not a parent.
And I didn't pick up on the parent-friend thing. I just keyed on the adult having fun part because I really do love amusement parks. Now it's clear to me that if I ever had to visit a park with kids in tow, I'd probably not love them so much (the parks, not the kids. Wait. No -- probably the kids too).
Oh I mean, I like them from a production POV, that’s just one small thing that I picked up on.
Because I’m Mr. Sensitive like that.
Post a Comment