Reality show...

Sometime back, I read an article about leaners, young people employed to virally market booze or beer campaigns. A leaner would go to a bar, order a dirty Gray Goose martini or maybe a Bud light, say, and strike up a conversation with someone near by. At some point, she or he might order a second drink and one for their new-found friend, smack their lips over the frosty goodness of a particular brand, then say, "I don't know what makes Bud so yummilicious. Maybe it's the special hops."

Reading this I reflexively thought, leaners really suck, without quite understanding the particular underlying eeeewww. Then I remembered a copywriting workshop I'd taken. The instructor had brought in a direct mail piece, with a yellow sticky note attached that read, Thought you'd be interested in this. He asked if we like the piece and none of us did; in fact, we actively disliked it.

"Know why you hate it?" the instructor asked us, then answered himself. "Because nobody likes to be fooled. This looks personal and it's not. It's a fraud."

Same thing with leaners. There you are, thinking you've made contact, only to discover you're in a budding relationship with a billboard.

Today I was reading a review in The New Yorker on The Hills, a reality show I've never seen. I steer clear of reality shows, since the people in them seem vaguely despicable and uniformly dull. On the other hand, as I've mentioned, I'm a glutton for true crime television, so what's the difference? The reviewer notes that people watch The Hills, in order to figure out why they're watching it. True crime, on the other hand, illustrates the huge difference between real criminals and cops and TV shows about cops and criminals. The reality is very clear and not particularly intriguing.

But perceiving reality is becoming a rare ability. Year by year, I note how easily the general public is fooled, or is willing to be fooled. It's not that we're dumber or more uneducated--it's that much of our world is bald trickery.

One of my fantasies is that someday there will be classes in reality. In my imaginings, people will sit in school, and be taught the difference between wild honey and sheepshit. Certain events have given my notion a real urgency. I wonder, would the Current Occupant of the White House be squatting there, if we knew the difference between an empty poseur and a true leader?

I think we elected a leaner.