Thursday, July 8, 2010
What's for dinner at Monticello?
In the ever-imitative world of advertising, we seem to have a plethora of commercials featuring our founding fathers. Jefferson, Washington, Franklin. These and other periwigged colonists have been used lately on everything from political attacks to an automobile being driven by George Washington. One of the worst of these illogical spots this one for Kraft. While it is nicely filmed and costumed, it is incredibly illogical. If Jefferson had anything to do with macaroni and cheese recipes it was not in our history books (but then we're not in Texas). Kraft, for some bizarre reason portrays the brilliant Thomas Jefferson as petulant, destructive and, in general, a pain in the ass. I think portrayals of early patriots is best left to documentaries and films like 1776. Kraft seems to be on a losing streak with a stack of cheesy commercials, this being one of the latest and dumbest.
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Coinkydinkily, the recent HBO miniseries "John Adams" also portrayed Thomas Jefferson unsympathetically. He was chilly and remote, supported the bloody excesses of the French Revolution, and behaved as a general, um, thorn in one's side. What a change from his characterization in "1776," in which Jefferson was affectionately dramatized as smart, empathetic, and madly in love with his absent wife. The only event that I can think of that occurred between these two characterizations was historians' clarification of Jefferson's real-life relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings. What a difference that revelation has made!
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