For the fascist dictator in you
I’m going to try something new. There’s long been a lot of weird stuff going on in Mexican media, stuff that makes me laugh, or shake my head, or turn the TV off in disgust. There seems to be precious little discussion going on about the quality and values of Mexican media, so I figure I’ll give it a shot. So from now on, I’ll review and comment on Mexican TV, advertising, and general media goings on. I thought about making it a separate blog, but I don’t think I write enough to fill up even this blog, so it’ll go here, at least for now.
A few days ago, I saw this commercial for Gamesa’s “Emperador” (Emperor) cookies. It’s a fairly typical Mexican scenario, where the parking guy uses (or abuses) what little power he has over the clean-cut upper classes, refusing to let the guy in the car park. But this is no ordinary fresa guy who needs a parking spot. This guy eats emperor cookies, and thus has an emperor inside!
So the morale is, if someone denies you a parking space, you should have your shock troops come in and throw them to the lions. It’s only fair, dirty proles should know their place. This sort of attitude is very often how Mexican commercials get their laughs, playing to middle and upper classes’ sense of entitlement and feeling that they are somehow the ones who are being treated badly in Mexican society, while the lower classes are lazy and have it in for them. It’s a common theme, and a common feeling, but it’s rare to see the delusion expressed as clearly as this.
September 27th, 2006 at 4:10 am
Good observations Hr Ziegler. However, I would argue that it’s just a cheesy take on Gladiator, taking a swipe at a bane of Mexican society as a whole (much as Traffic Wardens are villified here in Blighty). It’s just a coincindence – and immutable fact – that all of these parking guys are going to be more cafe than leche, no?
Even I can recall incidents where they were little cunts who basically say if you leave it here, and don’t pay, well… without their protection it’s almost *certain* to get damaged!
September 27th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Bueno, el anuncio es lo que pasa todos los días. En México tenemos una cultura de que el más gandalla gana siempre. Si eres un fresa prepotente, te vas a topar con viene-vienes prepotentes que ponen sus cubetas para “apartar” un lugar.
No sé si la proliferación de viene-vienes en el D.F. se debe a la falta de empleo, o a la falta de ganas de trabajar. Ser viene-viene es semi-trivial: basta con agarrar un trapo y buscarse un lugar donde no haya otros viene-vienes (parece que en lugares saturados, como Coyoacán, cada viene-viene tiene su espacio bien delimitado y no dejan que cualquiera agarre su pedacito de calle).
De ahí comienza una cadena de corrupción a pequeña escala. Están los viene-vienes que cobran por el lugar de estacionamiento a priori: llega alguien en coche y le dicen, “son 10 pesos”. ¿Se los da la persona o no? Si se los da, ya funcionó la corrupción. Si no se los da, se arriesga a que le maltraten el coche. [En lo personal cuando me quieren hacer eso, les digo que les pago hasta que regrese para irme; nunca dicen que no, y frecuentemente se aburren de esperar y se van antes de que yo regrese, sin maltratar el coche.]
Estoy casi seguro que en el reglamento de tránsito hay algún artículo que prohíbe la existencia de viene-vienes y anexas. Estoy casi seguro de que también le pasan su mordida a la patrulla para que no los quiten de ahí.
Con todo esto, no sé si se puede atacar el problema de raíz (¿cuál sería ésta?).
September 27th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Por cierto: no recuerdo haber visto viene-vienes en Xalapa. Los hay en las áreas popis de Cuernavaca, que es a donde van buena parte de los fresas del D.F. a pasar su fin de semana.
September 27th, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Federico: I’m not saying it’s not illegal to “reserve” part of the street, etc., and I’ve done things both similar to what you mention, and I’ve also gotten out of the car and moved the buckets (mostly buckets belonging to Valet Parking companies, though, which place these in spots close to the place you’re going, to force you to use them instead of parking on your own. Both of these practices are probably illegal.
I’m mostly commenting on the transparent upper-class power fantasy of the commercial at hand. “I wish I could have all these people thrown to the lions at will, instead of having to deal with them”. Or rather, “I wish these people were totally dependent on me and would never refuse to do what I say”, that is, a return to the power of the Mexican upper classes in the old times. That’s an attitude I see often in the middle and upper classes, and it’s what I think is so transparently shown here.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Debo decir que comerciales de esa naturaleza no eran muy comunes hace algunos años. O por lo menos yo no me di cuenta. Me llama la atención que al final del video dice ” Toma el poder y vota el 2 de Julio”. Es cagado, porque fácilmente se podría representar como perredistas y panistas. En ese comercial se presentan los esterotipos de ambos partidos, se ve a los perredistas como la gente pobre y a los panistas como los fresitas chacamente prepotentes. Pues al parecer los panistas tomaron el poder y en medio de un fraude, nos echaron a los leones.