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anthropomorphizing

by mike on June 24th, 2004

The other day I heard our air conditioner on the radio. It said something about how we treat our vehicles so well; how we maintain them and get the oil changed on a regular schedule, but how we’ve been neglecting it. I was confused and hurt. Somehow, our air conditioner had run away and was announcing over the radio that we were bad parents. Then it asked me to get it serviced at Strand Brothers. It was then that I realized it probably wasn’t really our a/c system. It was just an actor! Whew.
Well, I got to thinking about how much we anthropomorphize stuff, especially if we’re trying to sell something. Who can forget Mrs. Butterworth?

“Of course, it takes a little getting used to an inanimate syrup bottle suddenly coming to life and talking to people at the breakfast table.”

The occasional arguments with the Parkay margerine tub about its qualities as a butter substitute were particularly creepy.
So, I was going on and on about how annoying this marketing trend was, until I discovered myself anthropomorphizing a spatula. The plastic one was so proud to be used on the new grill that was normally reserved for the much bigger and rugged metal spatula. *sigh*

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