So you might have seen the recent Brawny paper towel television adverts featuring the Brawny Man come to life. They’re actually quite funny, for what they are. However, something has been striking me odd about them — I mean beyond the usual oddities and absurdities of the commercial world. Wasn’t sure what it was, but I think I might have a bead on it.

One of the first of the ads show the Brawny Man performing a number of “manly” outdoor tasks — chopping wood, feeding a sick animal, fixing a car, etc. — all performed in an over-the-top deadpan that is way funnier viewed than described.

Anyway, it occured to me after seeing the ads a few times that what was odd was that nothing was going wrong.

The axe head didn’t fly off into the forest as he swung. The animal didn’t freak out and attack. The car didn’t start rolling away down the hill as he closed the hood. I think I’ve been conditioned over the years to expect mishap in commercials.

Then the slightly less shallow thought came to me that really I had been conditioned to expect the male in commercials to screw up. The father is always overweight, balding, and dense as a chopping block — even if the rest of the family is good looking and healthy. He either screws up something trying to fix it, or is sitting on the couch watching the game while his handy wife takes care of it.

And here was a guy actually doing things. He didn’t screw them up, and he wasn’t suffering a bunch of pratfalls and other slapstick.

Of course, just as soon as I started thinking this might be a pretty subtlely subversive advertisement, the truth dawned with their next ads — the Brawny Academy, a sort of advertisement-meets-reality-show where eight husbands are sent by their wives to what amounts to man boot camp, to be taught how to do manly things and be men in manly ways, while remaining thoughtful and sensitive. It’s hosted online, and I trust Google will guide you to it quite easily if you so desire.

So much for being subversive. ;D

Still, the ads are funny.

Judge Bars Big Bear Condos, Cites Harm to Eagles

A Los Angeles federal judge has killed a luxury condominium project at Big Bear Lake and fined the developer $1.3 million for violating the federal Clean Water Act.

U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real said the developer of the Marina Point Project also violated the Endangered Species Act by harming nearby bald eagle habitat. Using unusually strong language in a ruling issued late Monday, Real said the developer “continually exhibited a lack of good faith in complying (or failing to comply) with” the Clean Water Act….

So much for that Bono-narrated advert about everything shutting down for the World Cup. ;)

LA Times: Germans Tighten Cup Security

BERLIN — The World Cup opened in Germany today as security forces prepared for potential threats from terrorism, racial attacks, hooligan violence and neo-Nazi rallies aimed at rousing the past and spoiling the nation’s image before a global audience.

The month-long soccer tournament will be played in 12 cities, creating a massive security grid of hundreds of thousands of police officers, surveillance equipment, bomb-sniffing dogs, intelligence operatives, fighter jets and the other anti-terror tactics of a post-Sept. 11 world.

Of course, that advert is a bit on the rose-colored-glasses side of things:

Washington Post: The Soccer Wars

The World Cup is coming, which means a flurry of desperate attempts by tournament promoters to excite Americans about an event that electrifies the rest of the world. This year is no different. ESPN, which will broadcast most of the games in the United States, is airing a series of ads with members of the rock band U2. In one, Bono says that the World Cup “closes the schools, closes the shops, closes a city and stops a war.”…

Does the World Cup really put a stop to war? Does soccer, known for its dangerously rowdy fans, have the conflict-reducing powers that ESPN and U2 proclaim? To be charitable to the World Cup, which this year will be held in Germany starting June 9, the evidence is mixed. It is undeniable that soccer has the power to unite — but its power to divide should not be underestimated.

Google compromised its principles in China, founder says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.

Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google’s rivals accommodated the same demands - which Brin described as “a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with” - without international criticism, he said.

“We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference,” Brin said.

Who knows if such stats would make a difference, because some people aren’t ever going to get it.

WorldChanging: The Food Less Traveled:

When I tuned into NPR in Sunday, the weekend quiz show was broadcasting from Iowa. The host asked listeners to call in with an answer to the question: “How much money would go back into the Iowa economy if all Iowans ate their daily recommended allowance of fresh fruits and vegetables from local sources?” The answer? Approximately $300 million. That’d be an enormous economic boost for the state, simply for choosing local produce, with the obvious personal payoff being fresher (and thus presumably tastier) food….