Thanks to my good friend D, who shares my sense of humor, I've posted this inane photo that just strikes me as funny. I realize that the "loads of hope" campaign is for charity, but there's something deeply absurd and pathetic about those words on the side of a box of detergent.
It's a weird world.
Oh, and forgive me! I forgot to draw a name for the book giveaway! The winner of my dear friend Dean King's book Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival is Sally of Maggie's World. Congratulations, Sally! Please send me an email at elsophie at gmail dot com for your copy!
I'm loving your blog! Got the link from Lisa's Blog Life Without Baby
ReplyDeleteAlright, watch for the delivery, I am sending you at least one load of hope via FedEx. Check your mail as well.
ReplyDeleteGood god. What we do in the name of commerce.
ReplyDeleteI know it seems silly but we have a family here who was in New Orleans after the hurricane and the Tide Loads of Hope thing really helped her out. They did her laundry before the family all got on a plane to move after being in a shelter. I know it's wierd but it really does make sense. They are actually doing loads of laundry to help people. It was such a relief for her that they didn't have to pack filthy clothes.
ReplyDeleteIt's advertising (the survivalist site advertised at the top of your blog today caught my eye) and it's Warholian and it's maddeningly housewifey. Hope while you scrub, ladies. And yet.....while it's easy for me to feel ambivalent about laundry---my daughter's situation generates incredible, ongoing piles of laundry---and it's easy for me to wrangle ambivalently with hope as well, I am quite engaged with trying to maintain awareness of the sacred in the mundane. Without that, much of my day starts to look like pointless slavery. And I admit to once consciously buying, in a depressed moment, a bottle of Joy dishwashing detergent simply with the desire to remind myself that in a different state of mind a person might find joy in the bubbles. So here's to hope in the laundry room.
ReplyDeleteActually, what hangs on the wall above the washing machine is a photograph in which there's a sign for a street named Dream.
A.
There is nothing absurd or pathetic about it. If you had ever lived through a natural disaster you wouldn't have said that. No water, no electricity. You spend your days trying to clean up an overwhelming mess. You and your clothes are filthy. If someone had pulled up with a Tide truck and asked me if they could do a load of clothes for me I would have kissed them. I would be so appreciate. Tide not only helped after Katrina but are helping in Haiti as well. I would choose something else if I were you to lable as pathetic. I think they are GREAT!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the last Anon. poster. I think maybe Elizabeth thought this meant that if you buy the detergent, Tide give money to charity and thus called it Loads of Hope which in that context is sort of silly. But, while they do help monetarily with disasters they actually DO LOADS OF LAUNDRY for people giving people who are living with filty clothes frehly washed and ironed clothes. I just don't see how you can call that absurd or pathetic and, since they are literally doing loads of laundry, the name hardly sounds absurd either.
ReplyDeleteYay for me winning and on such a controversial blogpost to boot!! Tide can pull up and do the 27 loads of laundry piled in my laundry room right now. I will thank them profusely, mean it sincerely and still think this is a ridiculous think to put on a box of laundry detergent.
ReplyDeleteI use Gain :)
ReplyDeleteand I won over $60 at the indian casino this week
works for me :)
Just found your blog through LA Moms Blog and I love it! Also had to comment here, having been through a natural disaster recently in Haiti, and echo your reaction to the Tide box. It IS a bit absurd. But even more absurd is people feeling so strongly about this marketing campaign that they would write you anonymously and scold you.
ReplyDelete