National Underwear Day

What kind of underwear do YOU wear? That was the big PRESSING question as I hit the street to do an alternative news piece on National Underwear Day last year for the good people over at FreshPair.com. This is not exactly a social commentary video, then, I realize. I mean…it’s about underwear. But the video was totally fun to do, especially because some dude actually tries on an awesome thong right on the street, but it definitely got me thinking about advertising in general. I mean, this video was made basically as an ad for FreshPair. Since I think underwear are a necessary, good product and FreshPair does a fantastic job of providing people a place to find just the right pair for their derriere, I really didn’t mind producing an ad for them. But that’s generally not the way advertising works in our society. It generally works by trying to sell you stuff you don’t need by making you feel like a self-conscious loser if you don’t have what they’re selling. This doesn’t work on all people all the time, but I certainly have fallen victim to being talked into buying something I probably didn’t need. So. What’s the point? The point is advertising is generally an evil arm of the badness of capitalism and consumerism at large. But it doesn’t have to be. It COULD be a way for good wares and um…goods…to be known to people in our society who could actually benefit from them through more honest advertising. Or by at least letting the advertising be an end-product itself, by being as entertaining as, say…oh…this video!