That Quizno’s Ad

I had surfed around and found out that I wasn’t the only one freaked out over the Quizno’s “dead budgie” ad--apparently a parrot protection group also made a stink about it. All the news stories I read treated it as a joke and it made the weekly "PC idiocies" column. Like everyone else who wrote to Quizno’s I got the same stupid stock e-mail informing me that this was “just a humorous way” to portray this dork’s (his name is “Chef Jimmy,” apparently) obsession with making subs and that “it wasn’t a real bird.”

I found the letter almost as disgusting as the commercial. Of course it wasn’t a real bird, you dimwits. I’m sure whomever filmed the commercial didn’t want to really kill a bird--or get in trouble with the Humane Society. No one thought it was a real bird. It was the point that a dead pet is not something humorous. Also, I notice the ad folks didn’t use a dead dog or a dead cat...that would have been too gross, right? Geez, folks, why not go all the way with the theme? Why not show Chef Jimmy forgetting to feed his child? Think of the “humorous” image: a dead baby lolling in his high chair, his mouth fallen open, his little spoon fallen out of his hand and his empty bowl in front of him! Hey, hilarious, right?

A bird is not a child. However, as a pet it is a responsibility you take on. By bringing an animal into your home, you take away its ability to care for itself. You therefore take on that responsibility. Chef Jimmy can forget to wash himself and die from cancer by neglecting a tumor growing on his leg in favor of making sub sandwiches for all I care. All he’s hurting is himself. But allowing a pet to starve to death?

As Marian Jordan used to say, “Tain’t funny, McGee.”

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:14:00 AM

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