Preoccupied with things, and not really paying much attention to what’s on TV, all of a sudden, it seems, the same ad keeps popping up, every couple of minutes… a travel company’s ad, with cool music and evocative visuals.
Every couple of minutes! Probably so the company’s advertising will stick in peoples’ minds? What do they call that… ‘saturation advertising?’
And then, in-between the travel ads, nutritional supplement ads are coming up, on TV.
And there’s an ad about a product that, apparently, can sharpen a mature individual’s mind. And, sure enough, mature folks do seem to be as sharp as tacks, in the ad.
Interspersed with all that advertising, there’s breaking news, much of it about Russia attacking Ukrainians, with Russians, the aggressors, attempting to justify their aggressive behavior.
But it’s something the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says, that may, very well, be more memorable than everything else.
When he’s asked if he would want to be evacuated from Kyiv, the capital city, President Zelenskyy replies: ‘I need ammunition, not a ride.’
And right after that, the travel company’s advertising is back on TV, along with another company’s advertising, featuring families frolicking at short-term rental places… and everything’s just really good. And life is going on.
But, of all the messaging and evocative visuals, it’s those words in the news, about not needing a ride, that stick in my mind. And I don’t even need to jot the words down, or a dose of any mind-sharpening supplement.
At a time when democracies are under siege, not nearly as horrific as the siege Ukrainians are facing… but sieges, just the same… those words seem powerful.
Even more powerful, perhaps, than the rockets, bombs and artillery shells hitting what seems to be a peace-loving – and peace-preferring — democratic nation.