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[/custom_frame_center] Back in the 1970s, there was a TV commercial selling Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Greatest Hits on records or tapes. You can still watch it on YouTube: the title is “Creedence Clearwater Revival Commercial.” I was surprised to find the commercial and it took me back to the days of watching television while sitting on the floor of my parents’ living room. From the opening notes to the end, I remembered it all. Watching it now reminds me how times haven’t really changed whether we’re talking about the two-minute commercial or the job description you quickly scan.
You see, this two-minute commercial scarred me for life. It was a precursor to our current society, seemingly bent on reprogramming humans to read and accept only headlines and sound bites. When is the last time you read through an entire article, newspaper or (gasp!) a book? Do you scan headlines or hear sound bites that sway your opinion on world events?
This commercial gave me a decade (at least) of misunderstanding. If you listen to the songs and tune out the announcer, you’ll see what I mean. I listened to the lyrics and every time the announcer came on, I blocked him out until the next time John Fogerty started singing. So much so that if I didn’t see the visual of the albums and tapes, I would not have known it was a sales pitch. Each pause in the musical action then led to more music, but I didn’t realize each break was a different song. I thought the whole commercial was one song. It went like this:
“I see the bad moon rising, I see trouble on the way. Big wheel keep on burning. Proud Mary keep on turning. Rolling, rolling, rolling on a river. Down on the corner, out in the street, Willy and the Poorboys are playin’ bring a nickel; tap your feet. Well, take me back down where cool water flows, yeah. I wanna know. Have you ever seen the rain? Seven-thirty-seven coming out of the sky, oh won’t you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride, I wanna move. Playin’ in a traveling band. Come on and ride the wind. We’re going up around the bend. Ooh. When I was a little bitty baby, my mama would rock me in the cradle, Oh Suzie Q baby I love you, Suzie Q, Doo doo doo lookin’ out my back door.”
For years I thought Creedence Clearwater Revival had one song; it lasted two minutes and was on TV. Imagine my surprise when I heard “Bad Moon Rising” on the radio. The second line was not part of “Proud Mary” and did not end with Suzie Q and a back door. A later realization revealed that “Proud Mary” wasn’t even a Tina Turner song, but belonged to CCR.
I was blinded by the bells and whistles and missed the main point. Even though I saw the commercial several times, I still didn’t know there were multiple songs. You can explain that away by saying I was young and just didn’t pay attention, but how many people do you know who read news headlines on one network’s webpage and think they are gospel? Then they could probably build entire arguments around those headlines. Do you often read job descriptions and immediately think either, “I’m not qualified” or “I’d be perfect for this job” without reading the rest of the description?
It’s a trap to listen (or watch) the “music” while the truth is buried in the overall message. You could say in an age of bigger, better, faster, flashier, it is easy to see what we want to see. Thinking back on the CCR commercial, perhaps that has always been true. Whether it’s a two-minute sales pitch or your next interview – what you take away is yours to decide. What you take away can shape who you become and the opportunities that lie ahead.
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By Melissa Hardin Baysinger
