EZ Does it.
Standing at an intersection at some residential part of Chicago. A quiet, three-way intersection where my brother and I resided to post-up and look for a ride to our hotel. Him holding his phone, and I, a shopping bag, we walked here, to save a total of $6 on the Uber trip back. Personally, I wanted to walk off a little bit of the pizza we just ate, but my brother is a little more frugal with his calories, likes to save em up I guess.
There is a woman, and a child, the woman is hugging the child over the top of him.
“MMM… adults at least.” I respond.
“Yea, adults, she’s probably dead now.” My brother says referring to the woman.
“Honestly, if it was the 90s she would be smoking, she’s probably not that old.”
I enjoy these types of conversations.
Our jokes proceed. We make insightful instances up in our head, about the kid being on drugs, mom being remarried, how the sign they posed for ruined their lives. Yet, something about the conversation continued to intrigue me.
After my brother and I arrived home, back where Internet was free on a WIFI connection, I looked up the company on the truck.
EZ Movers. Apparently, they have been in business for 30 years and is based out of Chicago. The Chicago part we knew, the 30 years, not so much.
I would say a woman in her late 20’s at the time, maybe 30, taken in 97, would be about 60 now. Almost retired. Maybe dead, who knows.
The kid, well, again, assumption, and the fact I am not going to do another looking up of a random person. I have done that before and it ended poorly. The kid could be in his 40s by now as well. Maybe has a kid in college himself, maybe not. Maybe he’s dead too. One can only assume, but their face seems forever plastered on the side of a truck meant for hauling other people’s goods from place to place. A business of convenience.
This kid though, the picture he is in, the fact that the company has kept the trucks the same, same logo, same design, same picture even, that was the part I couldn’t get over. It was obvious that the picture was dated, and that both mom and child are no longer in need of moving, not in those respective roles. However, they linger on, like a reoccurring M&M Christmas commercial where Santa and the candies meet each other, or the holiday bells played by the Hershey’s Kisses, or the Campbell's soup commercial where the kid was a snowman and as he eats the soup which melts all the snow away. There is something at play here.
The pictures, images of past incidents are not yet nostalgic, not yet historic, for if they are in recent decades, they may be traditional, but they are not yet a staple. In fact, giving a commercial a 10-plus year run only runs the risk of a child now grown enough to notice, to miss the point.
“Why that commercial? I don’t want to buy that stuff, or use that moving company, it looks old.”
So again, I cannot help but wonder the marketing whiz who decided to keep the image alive on the side of a run-down moving truck. Why do we do things, and why do things appeal to us the way they do? Maybe the idea that things that are new is really the misleading idea. Like giving the people what they think they want, new, only to have them to later realize "new" or "better" is never enough. Maybe we are all suffering more when we get the things we wanted, than the people who hold on to the older items, building their sentiment. After all, like a new relationship, how attached can one get after 10-minutes, versus a marriage of 20 pain-staking years? How often do we get familiar with objects, and instead of seeing familiarity as a positive, tear it down to get something "upgraded?" Maybe the old is the new, “new.” Maybe what we keep looking for has been here all along.
Just think, that what’s shiny isn’t always gold, and what’s new isn’t always better. Appreciating what we have makes life rich, we strive to keep the things we have in good shape, including our relationships, and in the end, I feel that we might be better off for it, who knows.
Either way, the truck looked old, the picture older, and yet, when I went to the company’s website, I noticed modern updates and what appeared to be an updated site. So, like the multi-billions the Mars company makes in sales each year, they too choose to stay with the M&Ms commercial from years ago, this says something.
“They do exist!”
Castle-Broken: When appearances are everything. Available HERE. When the human body we keep defines us and is no longer satisfactory, an "upgrade" could ruin everything.
God Bless.
“How old do you think that sign is.” My brother asks, pointing to a moving truck.
There is a woman, and a child, the woman is hugging the child over the top of him.
“MMM… adults at least.” I respond.
“Yea, adults, she’s probably dead now.” My brother says referring to the woman.
“Honestly, if it was the 90s she would be smoking, she’s probably not that old.”
I enjoy these types of conversations.
Our jokes proceed. We make insightful instances up in our head, about the kid being on drugs, mom being remarried, how the sign they posed for ruined their lives. Yet, something about the conversation continued to intrigue me.
After my brother and I arrived home, back where Internet was free on a WIFI connection, I looked up the company on the truck.
EZ Movers. Apparently, they have been in business for 30 years and is based out of Chicago. The Chicago part we knew, the 30 years, not so much.
I would say a woman in her late 20’s at the time, maybe 30, taken in 97, would be about 60 now. Almost retired. Maybe dead, who knows.
The kid, well, again, assumption, and the fact I am not going to do another looking up of a random person. I have done that before and it ended poorly. The kid could be in his 40s by now as well. Maybe has a kid in college himself, maybe not. Maybe he’s dead too. One can only assume, but their face seems forever plastered on the side of a truck meant for hauling other people’s goods from place to place. A business of convenience.
This kid though, the picture he is in, the fact that the company has kept the trucks the same, same logo, same design, same picture even, that was the part I couldn’t get over. It was obvious that the picture was dated, and that both mom and child are no longer in need of moving, not in those respective roles. However, they linger on, like a reoccurring M&M Christmas commercial where Santa and the candies meet each other, or the holiday bells played by the Hershey’s Kisses, or the Campbell's soup commercial where the kid was a snowman and as he eats the soup which melts all the snow away. There is something at play here.
The pictures, images of past incidents are not yet nostalgic, not yet historic, for if they are in recent decades, they may be traditional, but they are not yet a staple. In fact, giving a commercial a 10-plus year run only runs the risk of a child now grown enough to notice, to miss the point.
“Why that commercial? I don’t want to buy that stuff, or use that moving company, it looks old.”
So again, I cannot help but wonder the marketing whiz who decided to keep the image alive on the side of a run-down moving truck. Why do we do things, and why do things appeal to us the way they do? Maybe the idea that things that are new is really the misleading idea. Like giving the people what they think they want, new, only to have them to later realize "new" or "better" is never enough. Maybe we are all suffering more when we get the things we wanted, than the people who hold on to the older items, building their sentiment. After all, like a new relationship, how attached can one get after 10-minutes, versus a marriage of 20 pain-staking years? How often do we get familiar with objects, and instead of seeing familiarity as a positive, tear it down to get something "upgraded?" Maybe the old is the new, “new.” Maybe what we keep looking for has been here all along.
Just think, that what’s shiny isn’t always gold, and what’s new isn’t always better. Appreciating what we have makes life rich, we strive to keep the things we have in good shape, including our relationships, and in the end, I feel that we might be better off for it, who knows.
Either way, the truck looked old, the picture older, and yet, when I went to the company’s website, I noticed modern updates and what appeared to be an updated site. So, like the multi-billions the Mars company makes in sales each year, they too choose to stay with the M&Ms commercial from years ago, this says something.
“They do exist!”
Castle-Broken: When appearances are everything. Available HERE. When the human body we keep defines us and is no longer satisfactory, an "upgrade" could ruin everything.
God Bless.
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