What a load of crap. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a tribute to helium, lip syncing, egregious product placement, and in a small way, Thanksgiving. However, don't expect to see either Kermit the Frog or Charlie the Brown floating high above with all the other balloons. Instead, they'll be replaced by Flying Ace Snoopy, Pickachu and the Energizer Bunny. Okay, I'll accept one Peanuts character replacing another, but c'mon, getting rid of an icon like Kermit the Frog for some lame incoherent cartoon character or a product mascot? If I hadn't accepted long ago that this annual parade is essentially a slow moving advertisement, I'd be much more bothered than I am right now.
Oh yeah, and if you're concerned about another balloon-related accident like the one that occurred last year, extra precautions have been taken, including wind instruments along the route to help avoid such occurrences. Now the only thing they'll have to worry about is a bolt of lightening striking the Snoopy balloon and causing it to come to life a la Frankenstein's monster, resulting in utter mayhem as he flies his doghouse over Broadway, launching sidewinder missiles at the SpongeBob balloon. When you think about it, that's really what Thanksgiving is all about ... in my head.
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-06-2006 @ 2:59PM
Sam said...
The destruction of this parade is nothing less than one of the largest travesties of my lifetime. It has become a venue for egregious product placement. Who gives a damn about the Energizer Bunny?? I mean, do they expect little kids to want to get batteries by seeing him?
And even worse is when the parade floats get stocked with stars of shows that no one watches (guess I ought to watch for the Studio 60 float then).
It's gotten to the point where I watch the parade only to see if some calamitous accident will occur. In that way, it's like a really slow-moving NASCAR race.
Reply
11-06-2006 @ 3:13PM
pullMyFinger said...
there is a picture of the american flag floating around the internet somewhere and the 50 stars have been replaced with the such things as the mcdonald arches, the intel symbol, the playboy symbol, the windows symbol, the jesus fish. you get the idea.
land of the free? do tell.
Reply
11-06-2006 @ 3:20PM
Duane said...
I gave up on the parade in fury last year after trying to watch with my kids. They would do nothing but tease the floats for 15 minutes at a stretch, boring us with musical numbers and stupid banter from the stars of whatever the sitcom of the day was..only to show the floats themselves for about 30 seconds as they went to commercial. That's not fun for little kids to wait to see the charcaters they know and then a minute later say "Where'd they go?" and be bored again. And aren't parades supposed to be for the kids? Or are they just another way for the network to advertise itself?
Reply
11-06-2006 @ 3:23PM
Steve said...
Do you know what I'd like to see? An Eric Cartman balloon. Seriously.
Reply
11-06-2006 @ 4:31PM
Akbar Fazil said...
lets not also forget that there is a national wide shortage of helium right now
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4311022.html
Reply
11-06-2006 @ 4:59PM
Walt said...
Wasn't the Santa Claus in the original Macy's Thanksgiving Parade then ensconced on the balcony of Macy's store and crowned? I mean, if that wasn't a pretty sneaky way of advertising, I don't know what is.
Pikachu has been in Macy's Thanksgiving Parades from 2001-2005 The 2006 Pikachu is a new baloon.
Yes, the whole thing is a giant advertisement. How many floats in the Rose Parade proudly show off the logo of the individual float sponsor, and how many of those sponsor logos are mentioned on TV when the floats go by?
As for the demise of Kermit, well, it's just not easy being green. I fear licensing issues are most likely the culprit here. Kermit is owned by Disney, and there's probably other Disney balloons replacing Kermit that we'll see. Probably one of the monsters from Monsters On Ice that Disney has touring the country.
Ya know, they should make a movie about all this...
Reply
11-21-2006 @ 5:54PM
Patrick J. Sauer said...
Here's a piece I wrote from the glorious day when I helped carry the Barney balloon, and took a lot of guff because of it.
Enjoy.
http://www.patricksauer.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=1
Reply