In fact, I don't visually reach for the button anymore. My left and right thumbs have enough muscle memory in them that they find the little guy whenever I want to refrain from hearing political ads. Even in a darkened room.
Political adds? It's May. Yeah, you haven't heard about the New Jersey gubernatorial primaries, or New York City mayoral primaries, all Democrats looking to knock each other out and oppose who knows who?
I don't have a dog in either jurisdiction. But because Nassau County borders New York City boroughs, and New Jersey is not outside the F.C.C. broadcast range, I am subjected to all the political ads the world can create for all the money in the world.
After the November 2024 election cycle I thought we'd receive a respite from political ads. Nope. Primaries.
There's a guy running up an endless outdoor flight of stairs to tell us he's on nobody's side but ours. He's Steve Fulop, and he's running for New Jersey governor. Let me tell you, it's some flight of steel stairs. And since I'm not familiar with all things New Jersey, I don't know where it starts or ends. Heaven? The Palisades? All I can say about Steve is that he must be in very good shape. Or there's very clever editing and he has a body double doing double time up the stairs.
There is a woman who has flown helicopters for the U.S. Navy, who is now going to, "stand up to Trump." She's Mikie Sherrill, carrying her flight helmet past a fighter plane. I love the name Mikie. It's stitched on her flight suit.
In fact, candidates in New Jersey all tell us they are going to "stand up to Trump" and sometimes "Elon Musk." In what venue this showdown is going to occur is not clear, but they are going to "stand up." They are going to take on the "bosses" and end corruption.
The candidate Josh Gottheimer gets his fighting message across visually with his head superimposed on a boxer's body trading punches with The Donald, who's wearing a suit, in a boxing ring. AI generated?
Standing up to Trump might resonate with some voters, but it might also prove to be empty words. The Donald has survived more bad publicity, lawsuits, and assassination attempts than anyone. He's Rasputin. You can't kill him. It's possible if he were Catholic and celibate (highly unlikely) he could have been elected pope. There has been a recent opening.
New York City, not to be outdone by New Jersey, has at least 11 candidates running for the Democratic nomination for mayor. There are so many that ranked voting will take place soon. This is where the voters indicate their preference by ranking the candidates. The order presented on ballot was made through random selection. It looks like a baseball lineup card.
When the votes are tallied, those that didn't make the cut will be dropped from future ballots (this is like a golf tournament) and the process will be repeated with fewer candidates. The process will likely take longer than the Stanley Cup playoffs and surely guarantee to push the ads on TV and radio deep into summer. Can we take this?
The most recognizable candidate is Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, New York Attorney General and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), cabinet member under President Clinton and the son of a three-term governor of New York, Mario Cuomo. He's got name recognition, but lots of baggage over stuffing Covid patients into nursing homes and allegedly infecting the facilities, leading to more deaths. This is heavy baggage. But he dead don't vote (usually), and their mourning relatives might not even be New York registered voters.
Andrew Cuomo is deftly hedging his bets on winning the Democratic nomination in the upcoming ranked ballot voting. Regardless of that outcome, he will appear on a newly created party line, the Fight and Deliver party. It seems with enough paperwork and signatures you can create a party so that you get your name on the ballot with that party. It is somewhat like Noman Lear spinning off show after show from the characters who appeared on one show. Hey, it worked for Norman.
The incumbent mayor Eric Adams has already eschewed trying to run as a Democrat and will run as an Independent. The incumbent mayor John Lindsay did this in 1969 and in a stunner got re-elected, in my opinion because the Mets won the 1969 World Series in October and the city's population was still too euphoric to care who was going to be the mayor when November rolled around. The epic snowstorm in February 1969 and lack of snow removal in Queens was forgotten. Just a thought.
There are lots of seemingly fringe candidates who would seem to have limited appeal. There is Scott Stringer, who tells us we have to "keep that schmuck out of Washington." He means Trump, who he tells us we should "stick it" to. This is tough Yiddish talk, which may not be recognizable by the current ethnic mix in New York City.
There is someone named Zohran Mamdani, whose first name is not to be confused with that Upper West Side food emporium Zabar's. Or maybe he is confused with that food emporium and it will work to his advantage.
There is another candidate whose first name starts with Z, Zellnor Myrie, who tells us he grew up in public housing. Hey, everybody's got to be someplace. What were the chances that two candidates names would start with Z?
There is someone named Paperboy Love Prince, a performance artist. There might be doubts this is his real name.
Brad is easily the first candidate ever to be seen operating a forklift. The video was shot at the Willets Point junkyards in Flushing Queens, hard by Citi Field. Brad has taken flak for being on the property on what is considered a mob run business. Yeah, so is pizza.
My riff here on the mute button was touched off by an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal titled: Ask Your Doctor About the Mute Button by Joseph Epstein. The piece was tucked away in the lower left and corner in yesterday's paper where many of the more light-hearted pieces of this nature appear now and then. They can be refreshing.
Joseph Epstein is a writer who was editor of the magazine The American Scholar from 1975 to 1997. I think I've seen his name before on pieces like his on the MUTE button, that has an out quote, "It's the only effective treatment I've found for TV advertitis."
Pharmaceutical advertising is what sends Mr. Epstein to the MUTE button. I can empathize with his frustration with drug ads. They are everywhere.
Mr. Epstein admits to being in his 80s (he's actually 88) and certainly seems to have all his faculties intact. He lists all the drugs ads he can, giving us a top 10 list.
•Rinvoq (for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and more.)
•RectiCare (hemorrhoids)
•Calquence (leukemia)
•Qunol Turmeric (joint troubles)
•Uquoro (urination problems)
•Kardia Mobile (heart)
•Jardiance (kidneys, diabetes)
•Rexulti (depression)
•Otezla (plaque psoriasis)
•Visiting angels (care givers)
He tells us he could easily name 10 more. Oddly to me, he's left off Wegovy and Ozempic, weight loss drugs in his top 10. He doesn't describe the ads, probably because he hits the button as soon as he realizes what's coming up next.
I don't reach for the MUTE button for drug ads. I find the ads almost funny. I think it's the Wegovy ad where what seems like an entire town stops what they're doing and joins in a march down Main Street telling us they're keeping the weight off. See photo above.
They look like a Broadway produced musical, maybe The Music Man, where an entire town of all sizes and races is a sea of happy, healthy, smiling people. It is inspiring; if you like inspiring.
I think it's the Ozempic ad that tells us through a choreographed dance number, that it helps lower the dancers' A1-C. I don't really know what A1-C stands for. It's some sort of diabetic measurement I assume, that if it's high, you're in trouble. Not this bunch of limber dancers. They all got their number below 7.
With this avalanche of drug ads it is easy to believe that market research has concluded that the only people tunning into TV these days are those people who are older and most likely to be suffering from what these ads say they will treat you for. Or, they are people who need an SUV to drive through an inch of mud and water, splashing happily in the middle of nowhere.
At 88, I suspect Mr. Epstein takes something for something, but doesn't need to imagine he's got something else and needs to ask his doctor about restless leg syndrome. At 76, I take a few things, but I feel like a pharmaceutical outcast because what I take is not heavily advertised. Hell, it's not even advertised at all. There must be something else wrong with me.
I should ask my doctor.
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