Nearly every day I think the heavens and the God that may live in them for the fact that I am a grown-ass woman now that social media has taken over.
I’m not saying that I was up to a whole ton of trouble back in my single days, but it was enough that I’m glad no one was photographing it with their phones and then Tweeting it. These days, the worst you’ll catch me doing with your camera phone is looking gnarly in the morning at elementary school drop-off.
The downfall of not being young and stupid in the age of social media is that I never had anyone make me a breathtaking “come back to me” video like Mark Potter of Google Chrome fame did, and I never had the opportunity to make one for someone else.
I wouldn’t trade my marriage or my fantastic husband for anything, but these ads are fun, even if just to live vicariously. Others, however, think Google Chrome’s ads are tiresome manipulations of sentimentality. At the worst, people think Mark Potter seems pathetic to be trying to win back his girl in such a public way.
What do you think of Mark Potter’s public plea to get Jen to give him a second chance? Would you ever make a video where you put yourself on the line like this?
How does this sort of public statement of emotion affect masculinity as a whole? Is Google manipulating viewers with sentimental ads like this and the one featuring the awesome dad who writes an e-journal of letters to his baby daughter Sophie? Or do they show a softer, more vulnerable side of masculinity?
Does Mark Potter represent you, as a man?
Oh and finally… Does anyone know whether Jen actually gave Mark a second chance?
About Joanna Schroeder
Oh, the places we’ll go… and which I will pin on a Google map like butterflies in amber. Super Stalk!
Thank goodness the only horrible, awful pictures of me first waking up or stepping out of the bathroom exist only in photo paper and not digitally. Lovers without boundaries know no time. But you’re right; we are lucky to have grown up before the internet.
To the commercial all I can say as a man is wow. This is definitely a “suburban” trend of men giving up their manliness by begging for a woman to take him back. This type of activity does not exist in the region I came from which was an impoverish area of Brooklyn, NYC. My question is why cry over spilled milk? Since there are more women globally than men, i find it pointless to waste time on something that is broken. When a woman leaves 99% of the time even it is salvageable it will never be like when you first met them because if she physically leaves than that means she emotionally left a long time ago!!
Side note: Just so you all know I am not a fan of anything Google has to offer given their recent anti-gun approach & no I am not some gun-toting redneck in an overgrown pickup with a confederate flag flying either. No I also am not some radical MRA shouter either but I do take some of their views into consideration.
I consider myself a regular guy who tries to do the right thing as I see it, not as the sheepish media would have me see it. This type of behavior displayed on that video reminds me of all the depressed men driving around in minivans, especially when they see that I retained my sports car after having kids!! The three most common reasons that you see men getting rid of what they enjoy like sports cars, & motorcycles in the auto trader are here: Getting married must sell. Having baby must sell. Getting divorce must sell. Yeah right. What kind of mangina madness is that?
I mean it doesn’t make any sense. It appears that these men are willing to give up everything they enjoy for a woman who wants a usually expensive wedding (designed by & for her: example, she buys a nice gown, he has to rent a tux), only to sign into an Americanized marriage which means it’s a legally binding contract guaranteeing a woman a wealth increase of 50% if things do not “work out”. All the while these men live their married lives occasionally getting laid (not regularly like they used to as single men) in an attempt to conform to the way “she” wants him to be. Because let’s be honest. All vaginas have a cost and that does not necessarily mean monetary. In the end she dumps him because in her words “he is no longer the man she fell in love with” even though she had known this since her wedding night as he gave up who he was in order to convince her he was “marriageable”. He then attempts to “reignite the fire” with his midlife crisis mentality by attempting to get a fun car or motorcycle again but it’s too late because now that she is financially secure she can mate with the pool boy since she is reaching her sexual peak and the ex-husband was confined to a high stress job or an office desk of long hours to build his family. In doing so he neglected to continue building himself resorting to a reliance on Viagra mixed with Red Bull drinks ending in premature ejaculation or some other lackluster sexual performance.
What do I propose? Be yourself and do not bend for anyone because I believe if they truly love & care for you than they will take you as you are. Now if you’re a guy and choose to buy the minivan, carry murses, get a vasectomy, and where those ugly Christmas sweaters be my guest. The only I ask is when I pull up next to you at a traffic light please turn your “puppy dog face” the other direction because you get no sympathy from me as your are a simp.
For those who are curious, yes I am married for seven years now with two children, yes the sports car is still in the garage and no I did not go get a vasectomy either. I also am writing a book on relationships.
P.S. Was the word feminism created because the words woman and female have “man” & Male” in them? Just curious…
This doesn’t strike me much different that songs that featured a similar premise. A guy that is trying to ask his girl to come back to him over the course of 3-5min. of him going on about how great the relationship was and how he f’d it up and how he wants her back so badly. This is just done with a tech spin in place of the musical spin. So I don’t think it’s show much showing a softer side of men so much as showing a softer side of today’s men maybe.
I personally grew up before the internet caught on and didn’t have any young wild and crazy days…and I still regret that. Yeah you do stupid things and possibly get into all kinds of trouble but at the same time they give you stories. Things to tell your friends, partners, and kids later in life. Not only that they can be (or should be I hope) learning experiences.
It’s sweet but also sad and pathetic.
Sorry Mark, but if you’ve got to beg, she’s not that into you.
MOA.
This is real? I just assumed it was just a really good ad with a shit hot art director.
And in a time when banks and supermarkets are trying to tug the heartstrings in their ads, this use of sentimentality seems fairly pedestrian.