Sunday, October 02, 2005
(9:27 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Charles Schwab
I think that the Charles Schwab commercials in the style of Waking Life are simply brilliant. I know that when I was watching that movie, aside from choking on my own vomit while listening to rehashed existentialism, I was constantly occupied by one thought and one thought only: online brokerage fees.They could easily go into a little more detail in order to appeal to those Yuppies who once felt guilty for not knowing about "philosophy and stuff" and therefore remember that movie. For example, they could replay the scene in the bar where the customer and bartender shoot each other after discussing firearms -- except with Charles Schwab, the customer would only shoot the bartender ("middle man"), then walk over to a computer to make an online trade. They could also do a sequence where a Schwab representative advises the protagonist that he can tell that he's in a dream if none of the light switches work "and, by the way, this 'Spider' hedge fund is a really safe bet." Perhaps they could work in some kind of connection between Kierkegaard and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. (Waking Life kind of people would be familiar with Thrivent since they sponsor a lot of NPR shows.)
Then Charles Schwab could die. It would be very existential.
