Wednesday, May 28, 2008

"Watch What You Want"

Before you read any further, try to determine what message that title is trying to convey. OK here's the background - I picked up an old pen in the office with the words above appearing in black letters against a yellow background with no further information.

Without anything to judge it against, I thought it might mean the following:

  1. An admonitory warning like "Be careful what you wish for." I thought maybe this was from a religious organization or some "live lightly" eco-friendly group telling people they want the wrong things or should want less.
  2. An advertisement for a luxury goods shopping or celebrity channel designed to let people gawk at things they desire but can never afford - a sort of updated "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"
  3. Intentionally meaningless or provocative post-modern gibberish (like those buttons they sell in underground record stores "US Out of North America!""Support Chocolate Chip Cookies")
  4. Something to do with selling watches but that was a harder fit.
Context is everything. Actually #2 was the closest- I found another pen where the business address hadn't rubbed off- it was for a local video/DVD rental place (somebody in the office must have a relative taking home pens). Also the phrase had an exclamation mark at the of it which I hadn't seen. So mundane and obvious now- I liked it better with the mystery.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It could mean be careful what you buy or look at online because the government is watching

1:35 PM, May 28, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's like the army's take what you want but eat what you take. Watch what you want, but want what you watch.

1:41 PM, May 28, 2008  
Blogger QueensGuy said...

My high school girlfriend once got a button from her ancient Jewish grandmother that said "Wetter Is Better!" I thought that was remarkably progressive of bubby, until the gf told me it had something to do with hair care.

9:57 PM, May 28, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It could mean get your news from FOX or from Air America so you can only hear what you want (there's a bit of a watch v. hear problem with that one)

5:10 AM, May 29, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I first thought it would be an anti-censorship slogan.

2:28 PM, June 02, 2008  

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