Thursday, February 21, 2008

This is Inappropriate

I'm sure everyone is familiar with cable systems' ad-channels, where some form of music is played while graphic advertisements pop up for local businesses. Usually it consists of cheap, quick 'n' dirty computerized graphics with a local soft-rock/easy listening channel; this is the case for my cable provider, MUS Fiber.

Whenever an emergency broadcast of any kind comes up, whatever channel you are watching will be briefly interrupted by an squealing noise along with a graphic telling you to tune to Channel 4, the ad-channel, for an emergency notification. It's often a weather warning and it's pretty gray outside today, so I flip over for further information.

The emergency turns out to be an Amber Alert for a child abducted by her non-custodial father. The musical accompaniment? Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel".

So lonely I could die, indeed.

2 comments:

Nate said...

Between this and the ad that I posted about a while back - where a story about a child who died of hypothermia was accompanied by an ad for a pajama warmer - I have to ask: "Is anyone even at the wheel anymore?"

Rev. Joshua said...

I left this out of the post because it's a better aside than a part of the narrative I was weaving, but I'm almost certain that the emergency notice system is automated and so there probably isn't anyone at the wheel. So these random little moments of absurdity will probably be more common.