Billboards

On my way home today I saw a billboard which read; "Are You Still A Virgin?" Then it offered an eight hundred number to call for help - WHAT? Why would anyone who was a virgin call an 800 number for help? What is wrong with being a virgin? Is that a law they passed when I wasn't looking? Is there some "virgin" factor which they are now trying to link to cancer? If you were a virgin, would you seriously call an 800 number to ask for help? What would the help be? A call girl sent to your house? A make-over so you would be more attractive? Maybe two tickets to Vegas? Really, what help does a virgin need? Know where this billboard was? (Well of course you don't you didn't see it, I did) It was posted on the corner of Vermont and 3rd - Know what's on the corner of Vermont and 3rd (Some of you might know that one) Well it is a middle school! Yep, in front of a MS, there is a billboard advertising help for anyone who is still a virgin - Is it just me or is that CRAZY? Do we want to help middle school children get laid? Are we trying to encourage teen age pregnancy? I know school enrollment is down, but is this the way to solve that problem? OK, so this is LA - the possibility does exist that this billboard is for a movie or TV show or some other such nonsense - but look where they put it - in front of a MS - that is baffling. Why hasn't anyone complained about this? Why hasn't the principle of the school or a parent called and complained about the placement of a help for virgins hot line number being placed in front of a middle school - At the turn from Vermont onto the 101 there was another billboard - this one had the picture of a woman - are you tired, do you have a rash, do your joints ache - and the woman asking; "Do I have lupus?" It included a website which I don't recall, something like doihavelupus.gov - Now, y'all know I have lupus so awareness about the disease is good. Perhaps with more awareness there will be better treatment options and the cure we all know is around the corner - This billboard though, it is kind of weird...billboards are for advertising beer, or a movie, or a television show - billboards to solicit sickness - that seems odd to me. Same thing with the commercials I see about hospitals and cancer centers - Hospitals actually have commercials encouraging you to go their facility should you need medical treatment. If I am in an accident am I really going to flip through my commercial memory for the hospital which had the best commercial? What if a really good hospital has a bad ad campaign? I don't go to the really good hospital and go to a crappy hospital because one had a better commercial than the other. Maybe we shouldn't allow hospitals to solicit business by advertising. You could send me a flyer in the mail but a television commercial which shows doctors and nurses and smiling sick people - that is odd. Besides, patients don't smile when they are in the hospital - who wants to be in the hospital? Picture it - "Honey that commercial for Cedars Sinai was so great I think you should take me there right now, I might need an appendectomy." Sometimes a commercial for Subway spurs a craving for Subway, or Burger King - I might even move my lazy butt and go get something to eat - but will a commercial for a hospital wet my appetite for an IV? Will a billboard advertising lupus increase the number of people who have lupus? Does someone driving by that billboard say; "Heck yes I have lupus then go immediately to the hospital with the best commercial for treatment?" That is just silly. It isn't though is it? Why do we want to stop young people from choosing to remain virgins and to encourage woman to have lupus - and why in the world would advertising a hospital be good for anything? The world is getting more strange by the day. Even by my standards the world is getting twisted - Tomorrow I will probably see an ad encouraging drug use followed by an ad for the best rehab center in the world - Goodness gracious what is going on?