The Waltons Drive Nascar??

I am a sucker for advertising.  Put an ad on at 9 p.m. for carry-out, and guess what my family gets for dinner the next night? 

Hamburger macro

Ads work in this house.

The problem I do have is with celebrity endorsements.  Why would a musician or actor be a better judge of our country’s economic/social or international needs than anyone else?  For that matter, why would a senator be a better president than a successful CEO? 

Sorry, back to the point:  I am a natural researcher.  Give me a topic, and I will gladly lose multiple hours learning about it and evaluating it.  Maybe that’s the reason I get frustrated when someone buys a product because a paid celebrity says he/she should. 

But if I’m honest, my troubles with celebrity endorsements stem from my adolescent years.  The Waltons never knew how much I loved them.   I mean, I really, really loved them.  I knew each character with his/her foibles.  I knew their strengths, their temptations, their struggles.

The_Waltons

I never did like John Boy with his self-professed moral and cognitive superiority.

Waltons 2

The Walton I pined away for was Jason, who struggled in John Boy’s shadow.  Jason, who had the real talent.  Jason, who was forced to live with jug ears. After Michael (NOT Micky) from the Monkees, Jason was my second biggest “celebrity” crush.

The Walton girl I admired the most was Mary Ellen.  She had nerve which outpaced her self-discipline and got her into lots of trouble.  But the Walton girl I wanted in a friend was Erin.  With her sweet, acquiescent spirit, she would have been the greatest friend I could ever have hoped for.

And where is this rhapsody over the Waltons taking us?  Why straight to Nascar, of course.  So fasten your seat-belt, strap on the helmet and join me for a quick lap tomorrow as we see how the Waltons could ever be tied to Caution’s perspective of Nascar.