I was riding the Big Blue Bus to work one morning and at the Sepulveda and Pico stop I saw an Earthlink billboard featuring the original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng. "GET LINKED" and "STAY CONNECTED" it said in black and pumpkiny-orange Earthlink fashion.
First I thought, "Clever! Hehehehe 'get linked' - good one, dude!" and then the frat boy police inside me kicked me in the head and said, "Stop that, you sicko!" And it was right to do so. What the heck was Earthlink trying to say?
"Use us and you and your friends and family can be just like these two people who were bought from the Thai government by a merchant who profitted from exhibiting them and then sold his rights to them to another merchant until they ended up in P.T. Barnum's freak show. Yes, you too can be shown off as chattel! Then you all can retire, become farmers, marry [that part sounds kinda interesting], have money problems, go back on tour, come back and have drinking problems and then die, two hours apart."
Oh yeah! I want to be so linked to friends and family that I want to share a liver with them through a piece of skin at our chests, I never want to know a moment's peace, and I can never be disconnected else I'll die!
Ok, maybe I'm reading too much into it. At least Earthlink isn't AOL. Plus, who woulda thunk I knew so much about Chang and Eng?
(I still don't like the ad though.)
Rating: D ('cause I thought it was clever at first)
Reviewed by Lane Vanderveen