Ad It Up: That Darn Swine Flu (Old School vs. New Skool Pandemic Prep)

I know you're thinking about swine flu. With all the school closings and the face masks, how could you not be thinking about it? Not to mention the giant blame game some politicians are playing - did Barack Obama cause a swine flu outbreak? Or was it the illegal Mexican immigrants? And how many more hours of hand washing and pig pen coverage do we have to sit through? Then, just when you think they might be quelling the outbreak, news stories like this one pop up to remind you that a pandemic really is just around the corner at all times.

And you know what, I don't blame you for thinking about swine flu. It's hard not to notice that person coughing on the bus and wonder whether they've got swine flu or regular flu. Then there are the people who flaunt their lack of interest in the disease as if we can't see right through that thin veil covering their true inner fears of eating bacon and then keeling over. So I thought I'd take this time to look over our outbreak preparedness. After all, the best offense is a good defense. We have lived through swine flu before. Here's a refresher for those who haven't seen the swine flu PSAs of '76:



The lesson to be learned from 1976 is that being cocky about not getting swine flu is by far the best way to get swine flu. Also, don't touch old people if you've got the swine flu, because they like to hug and kiss a lot of people and they're close talkers so they're sure to spread it. But that was '76. This is how we do it in 2009!

1) First, if we're going to catch a deadly disease, we're going to do it in style. Here's Katy Perry showing off her H1N1 bling, which she bought at the suggestion of her cat, Kitty Purry. Yes, she named her effing cat, Kitty Purry. And its name reflects the equally bad jokes it apparently tells to Katy. I think that's what they call schizophrenia.

2) Then, we let celebs foster false rumors about how the disease is spread. To be fair, this clip is from TMZ, the only entertainment "news" organization that hasn't learned not to ask Paris Hilton for her opinion on real issues yet.

3) Finally, here's what PSAs look like in the new millennium. We have evolved as a species so much so that our nostrils are actually high pressure wind tunnels that douse everything in sight with snot when we sneeze. It's pretty disgusting, but that's the price of progress.



I think the "Catch It, Bin It, Kill It" slogan is a good modernization of the '70s generic swine flu is coming campaign. We've still got the old people, but then you throw a baby and a kid in there and bam! the perfect PSA. A little bit of guilt a little bit of fear and a little bit (not too much) of action. 2009 - you are pandemic-ready.

This entry was posted by Lady Amy, on Wednesday, May 06, 2009. You can leave your response.