k0an.com

When the original "got milk?" ads came out thirteen years ago (not kidding) everyone laughed and cried and bought some milk. They were clever and "edgy" and all that and they served their purpose for a few years. Now I'm asking for this trend to be retired... please! I see tired rip-offs of the phrase on a daily basis in local advertising. Today, while driving north on 880 I saw a big and shiny 4x4 pickup with "Got Avon?" in huge letters on the back window. Because of that and the fact that it was a purple truck I figured it would be a woman driving but it was a guy. Putting aside the gender identity questions I wonder if it's legal for one company to completely steal the slogan of another company. I don't even really care about that though. I just want the whole "got...?" thing to die! It served its purpose! Plus, the thing that made it a good campaign was the whole package: clever writing, decent acting, unique narrator voice, unique font, etc... Just using "got...?" is a completely lazy appropriation of a formerly good idea. If we have to resort to banning the word "got" from the English language I don't think that is going too far (there is always "have"). So please, everyone, IT'S NOT FUNNY OR CLEVER ANYMORE, it's just pitiful.

Speaking of "pitiful", here is a link to an officially sanctioned free download of Weird Al Yankovic's pardoy of "Beautiful" by James Blunt, "Pitiful". I think it is pretty funny.