spokesmanship has gone too far...
I never gave much thought about Tom Cruise. Yeah, he's been in a handful of good movies and he's got a killer smile, but really... he's just so much of a pop celeb that it's not really his work that's important to a lot of people, it's the fact that he makes a shit load of money consistently. He can draw a crowd, that Tommy boy.
{Actually, I'm kinda glossing over his career... he's been in several movies that I was completely crazy about (namely Minority Report and Vanilla Sky), and he's a damned good interviewee. He really seems interested in talking about his love for film. But that's not really the point.}
The point is, he's my new place of work's spokesperson. Everywhere I turn, there's his 100 watt grin staring me in the face. His picture is mounted in the cafeteria above the water cooler, and in the main hallway, there's a big glossy pic of him holding up our product like a bloody Oscar award. The most annoying this is this: every once in a while his picture pops up on our computer screens at work, welcoming us new employees to 'the team'. It was cute the first time, but after thousands of movements to clear the pop-up, It's completely annoying. To tell you the truth; it is wearing away any sort of appreciation I've ever had for him.
I guess though, if he can draw crowds to see almost any flick that he stars in, maybe he'll just have that star power to get people interested in our product. Fair enough. I can handle seeing him in the commercial that runs on every channel, pretty much every half hour or so. I can handle seeing print ads in Vogue, People and Entertainment Weekly, nonchalantly holding our product in his hand during red carpet walks at the latest premieres. I can even handle seeing billboards, with his face enlarged 100 million times average size without paranoia setting in.
But, I don't think that it's appropriate to have him thumbtacked on every available free space at work. Let's be honest here and say that, there is zero chance of any consumer walking into our building. We don't get any deals on the products he endorses because it's an Amercian company that uses technology that is non-existent in Canada. Simply put, we can't use any of the stuff that we specialize in. So, aside from demonstating how powerful American media has on Canadian society, there's no real need for his 'motivating' prescence here.
Believe me, no one is motivated by him. We all just want to kick him in the balls at this point.
*Actually, I said it was Tom Cruise's sexy grin that has become distorted after millions of viewings in a few week's time period, but he's not really our spokesperson, in case anyone is curious about the details. All I can say, is the story is true, but is actually someone else who is just as famous. My company's privacy policy forbids me from actually naming names. I am beginning to dislike the 'real' actor, however.