who's behind the obay drug ads? torontoist looks into obay ads.

Across the city, ads for Obay have appeared on buses, shelters, and radio. Tongue firmly in cheek, they purport to be for a drug that silences children's independently thinking and allows parents to instead shape their children's goals and beliefs to match their own.

Though not Cloverfield in size of hype, there is some buzz about the ads. (If you haven't seen the ads, click here to check out the Torontoist post.) Clearly, the ads are satirical, because they claim Obay is from the makers of "WhyBecauseIToldYouSo"-not to be confused with the bad Mandy Moore flick. It's a tip-off that this ad isn't anti-pharmaceutical. (If it was, the drug would have been brought to you by something like "ADDictedica.")

Instead, Torontoist writer Jonathan Goldsbie wonders if the ads are an effort by Ontario Colleges. If it's true, then it plays on the idea that college helps form our belief system through education and exposure to new ideas. (I always thought higher learner was just a pressure cooker to help prepare students for real-world working conditions. I probably did learn a thing or two too while I was there.) I'm not sure if this would be the angle I'd take if I were Ontario Colleges: pitting children against parents and getting wrapped up in the Big Pharma debate to boot. If anything, family gives us a background on where we come from and the traditions that inform our ancestry. Saying that one (higher learning) replaces the other (familial beliefs) rubs me as bad PR.

Also, let's give parents the benefit of the doubt. Don't most parents try to do what's best for their children, including instill the values they hold dear. The creators of the ads may not agree, but creating a connection between teaching your children and the use of pharmaceuticals is a big leap. Yes, some parents may use pharmaceuticals incorrectly to pacify their children (if that's what this ad is about.) But how does this ad further that argument in a meaningful way?

Now if the ads were about whacked out hockey dads, soccer moms, and pageant parents trying to live vicariously through their kids and how eduction will set you free from these loonie bins, well, it's still not the clearest key message, but at least it's funnier.

love online

The Globe and Mail has a story on online dating. Basically, it's a cash cow.

Why? Because online dating requires little to no commitment (say "goodbye" with a single click) and provides great visibility of what's out there. Fugs can check out the hotties with little, if any, fear of rejection.

Online dating may make meeting people better. If only it could make the people themselves better.

cosmotv snore...

CosmoTV starts today. From the ads, the channel seems to play "Sex and the City" and fav chick flicks like "Clueless" ad nauseum. Oh, and some reality show trying to find hot men. (Most likely inspired by the magazine. The website actually has a tab called "guy without his shirt" and "shirtless sweethearts." Uh-huh.) Wow, this channel is gayer than OUTtv.

Photo via the Cosmopolitan website.

will vitamin d kill you?

The answer: maybe. Any supplement may help, may hurt. But the debate about the safe dosage of supplements is nicely examined in this CBC article. My doctor friend says a multivitamin is more than enough. Taking vitamin D, fish oils, zinc, and so on, are not really necessary, she says.

Of course, strong discussion is the key to sorting out a consensus: aren't toxicity levels where the harm outweighs the benefit? Read up here and here in the Boston Globe.

The biggest issue is the causality of vitamin D deficiency. Does disease cause a deficiency, or does the deficiency cause disease? Until this is definitively sorted out, taking vitamin D will be for most a matter of piece of mind.

inspirational quote of the day

So, apparently, the Inglis sign recycles quotes. Eileen has seen some before. That makes me sad.

Today's:

Children have more need/of models than critics

posh spices up spamalot

Via Defamer er... via Huffington Post:

Spamalot is changing the lyrics in a song ("Diva's Lament") to omit a reference to Britney, instead taking a jab at Posh Spice. It's a nice gesture considering Britney's current situation and also makes it more current.

Before:

"I am sick of my career

Always stuck in second gear

Up to here with frustration and with fears

I've no Grammy no rewards

I've no Tony Awards

I'm constantly replaced by Britney Spears

Britney Spears!"

Is now:

"My love life is a mess

I've got constant PMS

My career is about as hot as ice

They hate me there backstage

They say I'm too old for my age

They're trying to replace me with Posh Spice

With Posh Spice!!"

i missed you

Found this off Mashable.com:

Kizmeet is all over the missed connections. Too bad it looks pretty neglected. I guess Craigslist and Now Toronto are top of the hill on this.

city looks outside, realizes ice is cheap

The Star reports:

After a public uproar last week over proposed fee increases of more than 20 per cent, Toronto is now looking at a five per cent hike to rent the city's soccer, pools and ice rinks.

Thank god. Now I can keep on drinking Venti Choco-mocha-latta-gold-flake-encrusted lattes, driving my mondo SUV, picking up the 32Gb iPod Touch, while watching my 42" plasma with HD-DVD. (I know, I know, poor people rent facilities. But the "wants" of yesterday have become the "needs" of today, no?)

brr... it's cold in here

Must be some Torontonians in the atmosphere? (Is a "Bring It On" reference way too old?)

like a bad dream: nortel over 7 years

-96%! Yikes. Around the same time, the iPod came out. If you'd put $400 into Apple stock instead of having a clunky useless first-gen iPod, you'd have about 45 Apple shares... worth almost $9,000 at the end of 2007. Or, if you'd caught RIM, $400 US would have landed you 150 shares worth almost $18,000 (!) by the end of 2007.