The image is from a real billboard for a real college.
And every time I look at it I get angry.
Perhaps I should be magnanimous…and careful. After all, the school did hire me for a TV voiceover last year. But look at this darned thing! What, exactly, is the message?
Option A: “Get it out of your system now, kid. Then settle down and get a real job! We can help!”
Option B: “Caution. If you waste your life on the performing arts, you’ll wish you’d chosen a safe, boring career someday! We can help!”
Option C: “Wanna be an actor? You’d better be good, or you’ll end up as a bean-counter somewhere! We can help!”
Or, Option D (unlikely): “Former actors make better accountants! We can help!”
Maybe I shouldn’t be angry. Maybe this is just a call for realistic expectations.
Of course, it doesn’t help that I can tell from the call letters on the microphones (WOV) this is a still from a production of “1940s Radio Hour”, a show I did myself some years ago (I played the sound effects guy).
And, of course, it doesn’t help that when it comes to crunching numbers, I literally don’t “have the chops”…even with a calculator!
Still… The concept seems to insult both professions: squelching the hopes of budding young performers…teasing future accountants with the thrill of enteraining audiences they’ll never know.
Nope. I’m still angry.
Do you see something different?
– over and out –
