"Defy Whatever"

KillerMuffin

Seraphically Disinclined
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Jul 29, 2000
Posts
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Reebok's new little ad campaign doohickey is based on the slogan "Defy Convention: Reebok." It's commercial has a whole bunch of slices of human life with things like Defy tradition and defy physics.

It also says "Defy Whatever."

How do you defy whatever? Do you have to define whatever first? What if your whatever doesn't match someone elses whatever? Do you have to defy your own whatever and all the whatevers of your immediate family?

Rob Walker thinks that Defy Whatever is a perfect slogan for our time. I have to agree. We have all that angst and rebellion and not a whole heck of a lot to rebel against. There was that trade summit in Quebec City, where a whole group of people Defied Whatever and a whole different set of people got lobbed with teargas for Defying the opposite Whatever.

We take our stands and have some principles that we hold dear. At some point our principle is going to clash with something, others opinions, chance circumstances, the law on occasion. So we either set aside the principle or Defy Whatever and stick to our guns.

Some of us get all to fired up over Defying Whatever, perhaps a nice dose of prozac? I watched the thing on inside lockup: A California Women's Prison. There was an inmate there who Defied Whatever and was very violent. She landed in solitary. She yelled a lot about her revocation of phone priviledges. You're not allowed to call anyone, even your own children, from solitary. Naturally, it was everyone else's fault. Nevermind that she Defied the Law and got herself put there without any help from The Man. Defying Whatever really helped.

Sometimes, it's good to Defy Whatever. Sometimes it's just stupid and it's your own fault for showing such bad judgement.
 
It does work both ways

The cops in Quebec were most certainly 'defying whatever' too. They certainly defied being able to put up a sturdy enough perimeter fence.
 
There's but one thing I truly want to see defied:

The law of gravity.
 
just remember wat Douglas Adams said...the trick to flying is to just miss the ground :D
 
Good plan...

*throws self at ground*
*overhears KR1 make an intelligent remark*
*stunned with surprise, forgets to hit the ground*
*begins to soar through the sky*
*taunts gravity*
*gravity, having had other things to do than pay attention to this particular geekboy, takes notice*
*note, self does not so much fly as plummet*
*what a lovely round, brown thing down there...*
*what should self call it?*
*perhaps 'ground'?*
*wonder if it will be friends with self?*
*ouch*
...
Plan B?
 
Defy logic

This is very topical in my town at the moment, KM.

We had a group of kids here who defied common sense. They saw the Reebok commercial where the basketball player jumps over a speeding car. Decided to reenact the scene.

Maybe you've seen the news video - it's playing all over the country. The kid lucked out with just a broken leg, ankle and ribs and cuts and bruises. How he survived is beyond me. His pals filming from both inside the car and from another vantage point on a nearby lawn are now being charged with wanton endangerment - a felony.

I just can't believe the stupidity involved and I don't for a minute buy the theory being bandied about on our local news that "kids will be kids". No, it's actually more like idiots will be idiots apparently.

Now even if they didn't realize the ad was a computer graphic special effect inserted to make it LOOK like the stunt was really being performed, they should still have figured out that trying to high jump a speeding car is foolhardy if not deadly.

They deny that their intention was to submit this video to MTV's Jackass (although they had previously submitted several other stunts) They also deny this commercial having had any part in their decision to try this. Uh huh.

Now I have never seen the commercial nor that show and I don't really want to get into whether or not pop culture influences our youth to such a great degree. I just wanted to point out that these kids defied logic and really need to face the consequences of their actions no matter who "put the idea in their heads".

And FYI, Reebok has pulled those ads. They apparently only showed them during Survivor and after hearing of the accident here, they pulled it and switched it with a tennis ad.
 
Oh, that is so wrong! Reebok should have kept those ads on the air. They did nothing wrong. They are responsible for nothing. Those kids are idiots. I'm so sick of people shifting blame for the results of their own stupidity.
 
I suppose it doesn't matter whether the ads led to the stoopid stunt or not. Just the suggestion that their ad is associated with what happened reflects badly on the company, so could adversely affect sales.

There's a famous story here in the UK about the head of an extremely successful chain of jewellery stores who joked at a conference that the jewellery they sold in their shops was "crap". Everyone in the room laughed loudly at the joke, including the tabloid journalists who were present. The next day though they printed the story that he had said his jewellery was "crap". The company went bankrupt not long afterwards.

***

'Defy Whatever' seems to pretty much be saying, 'Rebel As A Fashion Statement! It doesn't matter what your Cause is, as long as it matches your footwear'.
 
Whatever

I think it means defy or ignore people who use 'whatever' as a dismissive comment. Good for Rebock.
 
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