The energy drink’s tube adverts might have been banned for making false claims – but their sentiment against our culture of working long hours should be embraced
I’m not squeamish, except for one small thing: I cannot repeat rhyming couplets. So I can’t tell you exactly what Red Bull’s latest London Underground advert says because it uses this mawkish lyrical form. I can tell you that it was reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority for promising health benefits that fizzy drinks aren’t allowed to do (nope, not even Shloer). I can even describe that promise, in a roundabout way: Red Bull will make you feel so energetic that you’ll finish all your work and leave at four. I think the rhyme, rather than the purported health benefits, is what really riled the person who complained and got it banned.
Leaving work at 4pm is the opposite of what you’re supposed to want; serious people work all the time. I haven’t had an office job since 1999. Over the years, I’ve learned a ton of things that people with jobs will never know: who Winifred Robinson is; what squirrels do all day; why corner shops only allow two schoolchildren in at any one time. But most of all, from this epic distance, I’ve been able to track the long-hours culture – when it’s been at its worst, what has been driving it – and then I’ve been able to ruminate on what it all means, because no one is yakking in my ear about carrot cake.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2FDwmwR
