melty, flirty, jiggly, toasty

since late last year i have caught on to a mini-trend in advertising: using -y ending adjectives most associated with children. (i remember my little brothers using the word 'coldy'). i think there are two reasons for this strategy: one, these words are visceral, physical words that conjure up vivid physical impressions. and two, they are linked to childhood in a comforting sort of regression advertisers love to appeal to. (melty is used about cheese, flirty i saw on a women's magazine re: high heels, jiggly a women's mag 'melt jiggly fat in weeks,' toasty probably re: sandwiches/breakfast sandwiches).

i find it insulting to be addressed as a child. but that is what advertisers do best -- treat people as psychological components to be manipulated. the best example i can think of is the subway commercial from late last year, of the husband and wife and child walking past a subway, when the father erupts in a childish tantrum. i think he uses the word 'melty.' the mother and son try to calm him down. melty. yeah. we're all just little babies looking for solace in our sandwiches. patronizing. worse than patronizing: stigmatizing! and pretty similar to how many politicians pander to regressive, childish emotions and the urge to escape adulthood altogether. government: bad. washington: bad. taxes: bad. leaders: bad. freedom: good. me: good! if we really bought into these infantile rejections of modern life and shared responsibility, there would be no america, no country, nothing. we'd be like somalia and haiti, poster children for the 'small government' fantasy!