Behold the power of..

advertising.

I've loved the "Behold the Power of Cheese" commercials since they first came out a few years ago. They're well done, hilarious, and often unexpected.

For those that haven't seen the series, or at least the one particular commercial I'm going to make much reference to in this blog entry, there is a commercial where a small redhead girl (probably about 5 or 6 years old, maybe 7) is padding down the hallway in her PJ's on what we realize is Christmas morning. She looks into her living room and her eyes widen as she turns back to call her Mommy and Daddy. "Come quick!" she says. Her parents, sleepy and desheveled in appearance, walk down the hallway before her. As they turn to look into the living room, their eyes also widen.

The father says, "whoa. Those must've been *some* cookies you left Santa," as they pan across the living room to show a large and well decorated tree surrounded by gifts the likes of which even Bill Gates wouldn't give as Christmas presents. A sports car sits right in front of the tree in the middle of what must be a very large living room. Other gifts, including living animals, attract our attention and make us wish that we were that mother, father, or child.

Then the camera switches back to a headshot of the girl as she shakes her head and says "I didn't leave him cookies."

She pauses for just the right amount of time, and then smiles widely and nods. "I left him cheeeeeese."

At this point, the commercial logo pops up as a deep voice says, "Behold the Power of Cheese."

The first time I saw this commercial I 'bout rolled off the couch in my laughter.

Apparently, though, there are those that are convinced that leaving cheese on a plate in the living room Christmas eve will bring one all the things his heart desires.

The local cultural paper placed a note in recent issues telling kids to write letters to santa and send them to the paper. The paper would then print them in an upcoming issue. That upcoming issue came out on Wednesday and I picked up a copy today on my way to work. Since I didn't have anything to do at work, I read through some of the letters. There were the usual questions and comments, like "Is it cold up there?" and "gimme, gimme, gimme!" But I was highly amused when I noticed a pattern in many children confiding to Santa that they were going to leave him Cheese this year. Some, not quite sure that the old ways are truly done away with, even said they'd leave him both cookies AND cheese. Nothing like a glass of milk to wash down a snack and a dessert, eh? At any rate, many of these children are quite convinced that their gift of cheese (with the promise that they've been good this year) will allow all the gifts they could possibly want to pile up under their trees for much delight on Christmas morning.

Behold the Power of Materialism.

There are many problems that I have, of course, with the entire focus of "Stuff" on Christmas, and the reigning belief that children should be taught to be good in order to get Play Station 2s and Nintendo Cubes and Pokemon card sets right near the end of the year.

Overall, though, I'm really quite amused at how the commercial brainchildren of whatever company it is that makes this series has now translated itself over to one of the most sacred areas of human communication -- children's letters to Santa.

So once more:

Behold the Power of Advertising.