Groupies with Heartburn
There's something oddly post-modern about a recent Prilosec OTC commercial with two 30-something (who knows, possibly even 40-something) women who are following Prilosec's new poster boys, country music dudes Big and Rich...
talk about how being on the road "with the band" can give a girl a serious case of heartburn....
Groupies with heartburn? What's next? Michael Stipe for Rogaine? Steven Tyler and all the over-the-hill Boys of Aerosmith for Botox? Jack Black for Slim-Fast?
But aside from that...think of the women in the commercial who've ditched the suburban nightmare and gone on the road to follow two guys who say they live in something called the "Plowboy Mansion" (double entendres apply.)
Isn't it a bit...well...adolescent? Isn't it the kind of thing you're supposed to do when you're....well...in your 20's...before life fills your every waking moment with soul-deaddening Responsibilities??
Guess that's not the case anymore. Apparenly, whatever age you happen to be, you can (as long as it's within the 2-4 weeks of accumulated vacation time) go on the road, following your favorite band...the way you didn't go and do it when you were in your 20's...
Just don't forget to lay in a supply of Prilosec, No-Doze, Advil, and Dr. Sholl's gel insoles (because, as a groupie, you spend lots of time standing around...more than you do...well...let's skip that one...)
Makes me think though that 50 years of youth culture has us at a place where it's NOT okay to be an adult. Something very weird about that. For further evidence than tv commercials, check out this piece in NYMagazine on 'Grups--the latest slang term for what used to be referred to as Peter Pan Syndrome. Even though the folks portrayed in the article are upper-crusties, most of us can see that the average 40-something today isn't the same 40-something from previous generations. Where young people at the turn of the last century looked like old folks, the Old Folks now look like the young people. And act like them too...
A bad thing? Who knows. Does change the idea of the "sophisticated" adult...
Everything old is new again? or is it history repeating--like the chili-dog before the Prilosec kicked in ;-)
talk about how being on the road "with the band" can give a girl a serious case of heartburn....
Groupies with heartburn? What's next? Michael Stipe for Rogaine? Steven Tyler and all the over-the-hill Boys of Aerosmith for Botox? Jack Black for Slim-Fast?
But aside from that...think of the women in the commercial who've ditched the suburban nightmare and gone on the road to follow two guys who say they live in something called the "Plowboy Mansion" (double entendres apply.)
Isn't it a bit...well...adolescent? Isn't it the kind of thing you're supposed to do when you're....well...in your 20's...before life fills your every waking moment with soul-deaddening Responsibilities??
Guess that's not the case anymore. Apparenly, whatever age you happen to be, you can (as long as it's within the 2-4 weeks of accumulated vacation time) go on the road, following your favorite band...the way you didn't go and do it when you were in your 20's...
Just don't forget to lay in a supply of Prilosec, No-Doze, Advil, and Dr. Sholl's gel insoles (because, as a groupie, you spend lots of time standing around...more than you do...well...let's skip that one...)
Makes me think though that 50 years of youth culture has us at a place where it's NOT okay to be an adult. Something very weird about that. For further evidence than tv commercials, check out this piece in NYMagazine on 'Grups--the latest slang term for what used to be referred to as Peter Pan Syndrome. Even though the folks portrayed in the article are upper-crusties, most of us can see that the average 40-something today isn't the same 40-something from previous generations. Where young people at the turn of the last century looked like old folks, the Old Folks now look like the young people. And act like them too...
A bad thing? Who knows. Does change the idea of the "sophisticated" adult...
Everything old is new again? or is it history repeating--like the chili-dog before the Prilosec kicked in ;-)
posted by Tish Grier at 6:00 PM
3 Comments:
I read that 'Grups article when it came out and it's a load of manure. Maggie Mason said it best,
"We may be at the same concert, but please. We have completely different Dodgeball lists."
http://mightygirl.com/2006/04/06/the-little-things/
Reminds me of a spectacularly failed attempt back in the early 80's to market Geritol to twentysomethings.
As far as this Grups thing goes, maybe I don't push Herself around in an $800 stroller, and I don't have the fashion sense of Cayce Pollard, but there is part of me that's not completely giving in to middle age just yet. I DO have Death Cab for Cutie on my iPod. I wear a suit to work exactly once--for the interview--the rest of the time it's jeans. I live my life like I would have in my early 20's had I not had a) no money, and b) bad judgment not seen since they let a North Korean chef into the Westminster Dog Show.
It's a balance. I drive an Audi and I'm in bed by 11:00 most nights, which would make most 24-year-olds cringe. OTOH, I get no complaints when one of them surfs my CD collection. And I was 31 when I spun at my first rave.
There's one HUGE difference between my outlook on things and my father's: He could reasonably expect cradle-to-grave employment. That allowed a settling down, and in turn an expectation of settling down, that's nonexistent today. I can't be the organization man; I'm forced to make my own way. So I guess it's not surprising that when I make my own way it bears similarity to what it looked like when I started out.
Of course there is a limit. I don't dare step foot in Hot Topic or Pac Sun. But then again, I didn't shop at Merry-Go-Round in the Reagan years either.
Whatever. The rules *are* different now, and the pop-culture folks can dissect it all they want. I'll probably still mutter "kids these days" under my breath on occasion, but I hope I never get completely old and stodgy.
Hey L & E....
I know that even at my advancing size, I find ways to be fairly stylish and "youthful" in my dress--but there's no other way to be, unfortunately. I find that I can dress that way, or I can dress like what I would call a "drone"--shapeless, no-style clothing that are meant to be "comfortable." But I do it more because I like to look nice, not because I'm trying to be young.
For me, I always wanted to be a certain kind of grown-up: that sophisticated grown up who does grown up stuff. I've been half successful at that. Only half because I haven't made the income that allows me to have the other half. I've chosen the "bohemain" life--and boy does it have its drawbacks!
But you're right Ed--there are very tangible, economic things that make our adulthood very different from our parents. The New York Mag article may have concentrated on the superficials because, for most of us, the economic realities are just wildly unfashionable. As a friend of mine, who's 60 and been all over the world (literally) remarked to me the other day: increasingly, the U.S. is looking like a third world country. He talked about how he used to be proud to say he was American when he went to various locations in Africa, but that isn't the for him nowadays.
I look at the economics of that article and think to myself how the folks in it who are acting that way might be wildly unhappy. they simply can't face the fact that what used to be so important to them--sex, drugs, rock and roll--that we were told would last us our entire lives, ceases to be important after a certain point. Remember how I used to say I had the longest protracted adolescence in history? Thing is, after awhile, all those things that were new and important being to be the same old, same old. When I realized that pop culture was recycling itself, I just said "so what? who cares anymore?"
And I started to find the internal landscape of adulthood far more fascinating than the internal landscape of my youth....
As for music, I really don't care any more. It's just not important to my life the way it was. Sure, I use Pandora, and I like Franz Ferdinand (and if I was younger, I'm sure I'd be a groupie) but I'm not rabid about anything pop culture any more. And it's not a bad place to be.
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