If you blink, the world can go right by you. That maxim can apply in a lot of areas of our life, particularly when someone is actually hoping you will blink.
The other morning my best girl and I were watching an innocuous program on TV, when a commercial for Prudential Insurance happened to appear on the screen. I did what I usually did when commercials come on, which was to think about almost anything possible save what was being advertised -- I'm a tough sell. The little lady, on the other hand, said "Did you see that?" as the commercial went by. Of course, I had not.
The ad was ... well, I'll quote from iSpot.tv's description:
"Prudential asked people to stick words on a wall that talked about their
pasts and their futures. Good things were on yellow magnets, and the
bad were on blue. In the long-run, people are thinking optimistically.
Let Prudential help you build a long-term investment plan."
Good things, bad things. But how subjective was that?
What alerted my wife to the ad was when one of the items was "Moving in with my boyfriend." Want to guess what color that was? Well, I'll give you a hint.
It pretty much summarizes something rather wrong with our society.
Yes, indeed, "Moving in with my boyfriend" was regarded somehow as a "good" thing. I can't speak for you, but if I had a daughter, and that was her past or future, I certainly would have looked at that as a solid blue (i.e., "bad") thing. Any wonder I had my X chromosomes removed before having kids?
Prudential is a big, sprawling insurance corporation that one would think was sufficiently conservative, enough so that its Board and its executives would collectively feel that a magnet with "Moving in with my boyfriend" would rest squarely in the "bad" column. After all, uncommitted cohabitation is not only frowned upon by the major faiths of the world, it is fated to end in one of two ways, and one of them is traumatic. "Playing house" is devaluing relationships -- and devalues marriage.
So what is Prudential thinking? After all, the "Moving in ..." line was so prominently displayed on that wall in bright yellow that you would have had to have been, well, me not to see it. There was no doubt at all that it was intended to be seen.
Remember my FTM rule when you need to ask "why" about something that has happened. Well, let's just follow the money. Prudential has prostituted the presumed beliefs of its leadership in a frail attempt to pander to young people who will be their next rank of customers. Do you think they (Prudential) believe that unwed cohabitation is a good thing? I don't either (and I don't believe that Prudential's management is a bunch of millennials who move in and out with unmarried significant others).
But was that really the best "good thing" they could come up with? Starting a 401(k) maybe? Planning job training? Getting a Master's degree? Taking a year off to travel Europe? Those, in context, can all be good things. In an environment where Judeo-Christian ethics are being metaphorically assaulted, as surely as their practitioners are being physically assaulted in the Middle East, playing house is not my choice of good things that I would want my company to be represented with.
Bad on you, Prudential. You tried to slip one past us, but you can't sneak sunrise past a rooster -- and you can't sneak promotion of compromised moral values past people of Christian ethical beliefs. I would have a lot of trouble ever dealing with your company if that's your moral compass.
Gibraltar is crumbling a little, I guess.
Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton
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