by Adam Feuerberg
I don’t think we get enough holidays in this country or enough days off from work for that matter. Of course, who am I to complain? I live in the greatest place on the planet, while people in other parts of the world concern themselves with war, disease, and famine. I’m sure they all want to listen to me bitching about how many days off I get from writing emails and making money, right?
WRONG! I deserve another day of sitting on my ass, drinking beer, and watching baseball. And you know who also says so? Budweiser. That’s right! Budweister paid Ozzie Smith to star in commercials promoting Major League Baseball’s Opening Day as a holiday, and a petition to the White House about it got 100,000 signatures, so now Obama has to answer it at some point.
Now, I don’t expect President Obama to give us another Monday off, and I certainly don’t expect my office to give us yet another day off (our holiday schedule at work actually is pretty good), but a day off is still better than having to call in sick. Did I do it yesterday? Nope, but I was sneaking in peeks of the games and box scores all day.
I suppose I have to grow up at some point. I remember a few times as a kid I managed to have my family give me the day off from school, and just staying in my pajamas watching all the great day-game baseball. I think that’s the most important reason why we need to watch on Opening Day, because it’s a “day.” Most of the games these days take place without sunshine, and I simply don’t get enough sun in my life. Between the crippling anxiety and my penchant for doing most of my things inside and at night, I need to appreciate more about life during the day, and baseball is just the thing to do that!
Okay, so I need time off from my relatively easy job and I need to spend more time outside. Sounds like a no brainer for Obama, doesn’t it? Still, we haven’t addressed the elephant in the room that I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, and that’s of course the fact that this whole promotion is an ad campaign by a beer company. Sure, Budweiser wants to support baseball, but only because they will gain so much from keeping us out of the office, keeping us in the bleachers and in front of the TVs drinking their product. It’s brilliant marketing, one that combines comfort with the ability to contribute to that comfort.
Hell, I’m thirsty for a beer and an afternoon at Dodger Stadium right now, but I can’t help but feel like that’s part of the problem. Would anyone give a shit about this if it weren’t for Budweiser’s ad budget? What does that say about its validity? Should I even care, or just fight for another day off from work while my gut gets bigger and I lose more brain cells? I’m torn because I want a day off legally to attend a baseball game and drink beer, and yet by doing so, I feel like some kind of drunken shill but I suppose if the hangover and the sunburn aren’t so bad, I can live with that…
