Television is a helluva drug

Look at the image beside this text, and then try to tell me that TV hasn't infected your mind. If you don't recognize what's so funny about it, congratulations, you have not been hypnotized by the world's most successful salesman. I'm not talking about the geico man, although he is fairly successful; I'm talking about television itself.

Television is one of the most obvious marketing operations in the history of the world. Its strategy is genius: distract people with quality entertainment, and then drill them with catchy tunes and iconic pictures to sell stuff. The plan is so obvious that most people don't even realize how effective it really is. The archetypal ACME co. salesman is now invited into your own home.

Regardless, I wouldn't say that television is a harmful phenomenon; it's not. With all kinds of opportunities to learn about world news, science, and even *gasp* well marketed products and services, television is at the center of the information revolution right alongside the internet and the cell phone. Quality entertainment is to be had in front of the humble idiot-box, and time is ripe for the wasting. From wonderful cult classics like "Doctor Who" and comedy gold like "The Office" to the gut wrenching "Jersey Shore" and relentlessly misinformational "Oreilly Factor," TV has seen us through the best and the worst in entertainment.

What is television exactly? Is it a successful door-to-door salesman or a modern vaudeville performer? I say it's both. Only fool would say that television isn't an effective marketing tool, and only Helen Keller in all her senseless majesty would deny that television is entertaining. What a truly magical invention television is.