I was watching one of my T.V shows and a commercial came on for PayPal. Understand I have no issue with PayPal, I think it's a wonderful service. It's just that in this case, in my considered opinion, someone in their marketing department didn't review a commercial closely enough, possibly because he was looking at it through his belt-buckle.(draw your own conclusions about where that places his head at).
So the Commercial in question opens on a woman entering a kitchen. there is a note there, that says "Welcome Janice. please feed Skipper". We see that Skipper is a Jenday Conure (I Believe) in a less-than suitable cage(a round canary type cage)
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| Jenday Conure |
So Janice, apparently a house-guest, made responsible for the bird, opens the cage to feed Skipper right in front of the open kitchen window. And Skipper is true to his/her name, and skips. Straight out the window. Janice calls Skipper back...once... and goes to PayPal. And we hear "need a new Skipper before anyone notices?"
Yes. Janice furtively replaces Skipper, via Paypal, with this:
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| Cinnamon Green Cheeked Conure |
Folks, you know me and birds. I stared at the scree for about 30 seconds going "what the hell did I just...I couldn't have seen...what the HELL???"
There were a lot of ways that commercial could have been done with or without a bird, to not make it offensive. And yep, I know it was an attempt to be humorous, and I can take a joke, but you can tell a joke or make a funny commercial without treading on the loss of a treasured family member, or the fear of that loss. For more of my thoughts in a similar vein... check here. People are weird about birds as pets.
There were a lot of ways that commercial could have been done with or without a bird, to not make it offensive. And yep, I know it was an attempt to be humorous, and I can take a joke, but you can tell a joke or make a funny commercial without treading on the loss of a treasured family member, or the fear of that loss. For more of my thoughts in a similar vein... check here. People are weird about birds as pets.
So I posted on PayPal's general feedback forum, called their customer service, and finally went to my bird groups on Facebook. I got a lot of responses there, but was also asked...
"WHERE'S THE PETITION??"
So I created a petition. I'm including it here if you feel this was a wrong message to send, if your conscience leads you to sign, sign. I am going to include a link to a video someone put up of the commercial, but it's on Facebook, so I am not sure it will work if you are not.
Usually I don't let stuff like this bug me that much...but My birds are a soft spot, and I am not alone in that.
Hashtag social bird justice warrior.
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