A week before Christmas, I caught Cingular Wireless's TV commercial (again) with an elderly Jim talking to his soon-to-be son-in-law and preferring to be called "Jim," at which the son-in-law starts making fun of his name: "Jim, Jimbo, Jimmy-Boy, The Jimster,"...And if you remember it well, he says "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care!"
But this night, "Jimmy crack corn" was missing. Gone. Edit-ed out.
A day later, wrestling against my urge to not sit down to National Lampoon's Vacation again, like I always do when its on TV, Clark Griswold sings "Jimmy crack corn and I don't care!"
So, something was up, and its not about this 24-hour span between two related observations: "Jimmy Crack Corn..." is an old slave song in mournful lament over one's master's death, but also contained anti-slavery undertones.
It took Chevy Chase to prompt me to look it up. Eminem just recently rapped it to center stage. But apparently no one told Cingular until last week. If they leave the ad as is, then it should have been no big deal because the line has its roots from anti-slavery. If they cut the line, which they did, they risk igniting observant and inquiring minds. They could have just retired the ad.
I hope no one's offended. But I wonder if the Cingular customer service lines are busy. Talk about the least dropped calls.
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