Eli Lilly and Company’s subtle messages you need to know about in their latest TV ad

Eli Lilly & Co have a 90-second ad out now that aims to promote a level playing field when it comes to access to medicine. Take a look…

Sometimes when I post about commercials I keep my personal opinions to myself, just delivering information about the actors, music, etc. Not so today.

This ad from Lilly (created by PHD Media) gives the viewer a sense of the problem, backed by urgent music then offers up the solution, in this case the solution is Eli Lilly & Co (surprise, surprise) with hopeful, inspiring music playing in the background.

Besides the fact that Lilly is a company that wants to make money so of course they’re going to try to make themselves look virtuous and all that, there are a couple of subtle messages within the ad that, the more I think about them, tick me right off.

The first one floats by without much distinction. Did you catch it? The line goes like this: “The body you are randomly assigned at birth…”

Um, WHAT? I’m shocked this script didn’t get another revision (or even more scary, maybe it did!). “Randomly assigned”? Who writes this woke junk? I guess one way to look at it is that at least they acknowledged a higher power, after all if a body is assigned to someone, someone’s got to be doing the assigning, right?

But even within this line is another bothersome phrase: “assigned at birth.” Hmm. What about the body for the previous nine months inside the mama’s belly? They are telling the viewer indirectly that you are not a human till you are born. Scary stuff. The reality, whether Lilly & Co wants to believe it, is that science is on the side of a fetus being its own entity VERY soon after conception. Case and point: Just 21 days after conception the fetus has a blood type. Without getting into the details (you can check out this post for more info), one person cannot survive with two different blood types in their system. So if the fetus is just an extension of the mother, say bye bye to mama because she will have two blood types, which is 100% fatal. But for centuries pregnant women haven’t been dying by the millions! So what’s up with that? I guess it’s the science. The little life growing inside her is a person, a human, with its own blood type.

The second subtle message from this ad is: white people bad. All other people – good. Take a look at the ad again if you need to, and notice when white people show up, if at all. It’s when they mention zip code 90210, showing two white couples. The first pair is eating a meal in an extravagant setting. The next couple is playing tennis in a country club type setting. In other words, white people are rich and out of touch and should be discriminated against. Side note: exactly how terrible and lazy are these tennis players? There are a million balls laying all over the court.

Later they show a black man wearing a covid mask standing in front of a billboard with a white-haired lady smiling, no mask. OK, I thought they were trying to be subtle but now I’m not so sure.

The only other white people we see are a couple of kids, and kids are (and should be) exempt from being portrayed as evil. That title is reserved for the evil white adult. White people bad! Definitely don’t buy the white man in your life this manly hat.

I cannot stand the pandering in this ad. Just so we are all on the same page, anyway, we all know Lilly is a company that wants to make money, right? So let’s pay close attention to what they say, and who they say it about, because at the end of the day they shot and edited a commercial to appeal to a group of people so those people will spend money on Lilly products. That’s all it’s about. Don’t let picturesque clips of black people playing basketball or Mexican people dancing to Mexican music cloud your vision. You can be 1,000% sure they did market research, tests, studies, to find out how best they can spend their advertising dollars to get the biggest return. Sadly, Lilly went with bashing white people and promoting a pro-choice agenda.

For all of us who have exited a womb and appreciate the beauty in the colors of all of our skin, this ad should be offensive. It keeps alive the idea of division based on race, economic status, and geographic location. With that said, I guess the commercial actually does exactly what it’s claiming to be against.

How do you feel about the ad? Did anything stand out to you as being divisive, or unifying? Chime in below and let’s discuss!

-Out of the Wilderness

A few peculiar things about Elvis Presley and his music

I have been an Elvis Presley fan for a long time and it’s something I share with my dad, which is really cool. Over the years I’ve come to really appreciate Elvis’s music and style. I don’t think either can be matched by anyone ever again because of the era in which he was famous. But beyond that, did you know Lisa Marie (Elvis’s daughter) was a mother to a son? That means there was a kid out there who could say Elvis was his grandfather. I mean, I had the best grandfathers in the world, but I can’t wrap my head around the fact that there was a young man who was the only guy who could make this claim. –(EDIT: Elvis has granddaughters, too, but I’m just addressing this from a man’s perspective)– Can you imagine being able to say Elvis was your granddad? It’s just crazy to me. Also, and I’ve written about this before, at one point two iconic figures were related. Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley. Weird, sure, but also crazy that two of the most well-known entertainers were related (although it was decades after Elvis had died that the marriage happened). Just weird!

Also, it should be noted that I purposely used past tense referring to the grandson of Elvis, because the young man passed away a few years back. There will be no legacy from the legendary singer, not that his grandson was a singer or anything. Scroll down for more…

A couple of other oddities from a few of his songs… I noticed some of the lyrics include phrases and things that definitely would not fly in today’s music (unless you’re a rapper, I guess?) Check out the lyrics in the songs below.

“I rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man…” –Let’s Play House

I hear you’re pretty good at runnin’, but pretty soon you’ll slip and fall. That’s when I’ll drag you home with me, girl, I’m gonna chain you to the wall…” –Dirty, Dirty Feeling

I hope you found these things to be interesting, I sure did! Do we need to review these songs to see if they are inappropriate to play in today’s society? In a cancel-culture society, should they be dropped from the radio? Chime in below, thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Another nest in the front yard, but which kind of bird!?

I’m turning into Michael Keaton day by day. Why? Because in 2014 he was Birdman and 7 years later the title has been bestowed on me. Ok, no one calls me that but I’ve given myself that nickname due to all the birds I’ve been obsessed with since the beginning of the year. I even bought a book about birds from an estate sale. A bird book. Birdman has a bird book. I always thought I would be Orlando Bloom or Jack Sparrow. Michael Keaton? Hmm. Whatever.

Anyway matey’s, the other day I was in the front yard, where this nest hosted 4 little birdies, when a female cardinal quickly flew off a high part of a bush near the front of my pirate ship house. I thought, “Arrrrrrr!!! That’s peculiar.” I peaked in the bush and sure enough, there was a nest! It was too high to see inside so later that day I got out a small ladder, like any good pirate would do, and this is what I found.

Awesome!! Speckled eggs, and a lot of them. I am very curious about how cardinal chicks look when they’re hatched so I will be sure to pass along any updates in the coming days and weeks.

Eggs be a’hatchin’, stay tuned for more. Thanks for docking your ship here today, ya scaliwag!

–Birdman Jack Sparrow Out of the Wilderness

My thoughts on the fatal California road rage shooting

In the news this week is the story of a young boy who was shot while in a booster seat in the backseat of a car in an apparent road rage incident. This is such a tragedy. Only 6 years old, the very definition of innocence. The Bible says God is near the brokenhearted and that’s a promise that I hope is fulfilled for this family as they move forward short one family member. He was a son, a brother, a nephew, and was so new to the world. I’m sure he never thought about road rage, angry people, or what it would be like to face death. Those are things adults think about, which really shouldn’t be something anyone should have to think about. As a person who was almost in an incident like this (click here for my story of a road rage driver pointing a gun at me), I can say with 100% confidence that having a gun pointed in your direction is very scary. It’s something I think about a lot, even three years later. For all I know, the man pulled the trigger and it just didn’t fire for whatever reason. That’s an experience that could have severely altered my life, or even brought an end to it. My behavior on the roads and highways has changed since then and although I still get impatient, I think twice or three times or nine times before I act in anger.

As I watched the news about this story on ABC this morning, only one thing struck me as a bit odd. They reported that her car had a bullet hole in the back, coming through the trunk to the cabin of her vehicle. The mother, who was driving the car, said in her interview that the suspect(s) cut her off on the highway. So how is it that they were shooting from behind her? My guess is she had a bit of road rage, too, and acted in anger after she was cut off. Maybe she sped up to return the gesture by cutting them off further down the highway. An article I read reported the mother was just trying to get away from the other vehicle and that’s when the shot came through but I think there is more to the story.

I’m definitely not saying there is any justification in the shooting. I hope the suspects are found and pay for what they did. It’s too bad a young man suffered the consequences for immature adults, one of which may have been his own mom.

What do you think about this story? Do you think the boy’s mom might have played even a small part in fueling the anger that caused this tragedy?

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Astrophotography – Starry Night by the Gulf of Mexico

After I got a new camera, I found out the lens that came with it was great for taking pictures of stars at night. Also called astrophotography, I was eager to give it a try. I had seen some photos online and the best way to describe my reaction: mesmerized.

I was recently in Florida visiting family, with one main photography goal – pictures of stars! So one evening I grabbed my camera and walked out to the beach. It was about 11:45pm with an almost perfectly clear sky, so I was pumped to take some photos of the stars and landscape around me. Without further ado, here– oh wait– before we get to the photos, here are the settings I used as a screen grab from a YouTube video on how to shoot astrophotography…

Ok, without further ad, here– oh wait– the lens! I was using a Sony 24mm f/1.4 lens which you can find on Amazon here. It is quite phenomenal and if you are on the fence about getting one, jump off the fence and get it!

Okkkkkk, without further ado, here– wait, wait, one last thing… (just kidding)… without further ado, here are a few photos from the beach. To see more from this session of astrophotography, go over to FineArtAmerica and check out the photos!

I have much more to learn so stay tuned and as always, thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness