Sarah Holland
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Mar 01/00) - Advertisers spend millions of dollars for commercials, and what do I do? Immediately change the channel.

Some people enjoy watching commercials, but to me, being bombarded by a company's "propaganda" as they try to convince us that their product is the best is three minutes of irritation.

And three minutes that recur all too often. Ten minutes of show, three minutes of commercial, and on it goes.

Admittedly, I never change the channel when animal commercials come on.

OK, I'm a sucker for a group of golden retriever puppies like in the Dirt Devil ads (but I have never bought a Dirt Devil vacuum).

Some commercials propagate stereotypes. Sound like I'm reading too much into simple advertising?

Well, when I see a department store commercial that advertises tools for Father's Day and cookware for Mother's Day, my feathers become a little ruffled because I use tools and men like to cook.

It seems so many of the age-old stereotypes refuse to roll over and die, and commercials like these don't help.

On the other hand, some ads make us laugh, which is great, and others open our eyes to societal problems.

These were the types commercials shown at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre this past weekend during the Greatest Commercials of the Century.

It was a nice change to watch some creative commercials instead of the usual car commercials, complete with classical music and winding roads.

Most of the ads were silly and provided some laughs, and others enlightened us on serious subjects such as spousal abuse and the suffering in Third World countries like Rwanda.

Others combined a serious subject with humour. Take for example the man at the photocopier whose leg was an object of affection for a dog. Imagine a full view of a dog humping this man's leg.

What a sight.

The point of the ad was that this is how women feel when they are assaulted at work.

Another ad for condoms was of an elderly man showing us Geronimo, his old-fashioned, reusable condom which he said felt like using the inner tube from a bicycle.

He couldn't understand why people these days complain about having to use condoms.

Seeing these hand-picked commercials was much more pleasant than watching the sensory attacks that pervade our present-day TV experiences.

And as for brainwashing, I had no desire to go buy a Geronimo when I left the theatre.