I watched 10 minutes of the Macy's parade.

[Archae]

And I erased it from my DVR.

I wanted to see the damn PARADE, you morons!
Not Tony Danza doing a shitty imitation of Frank Sinatra!

And sure as hell not interviews promoting all the "NEW! EXCITING!" shows on NBC.

[tech3149]

1. first thing to remember. It is commercial media!

They're just selling you to advertisers or promoting their own BS diversions from reality.

[MANative]

2. I worked in Macy's corporate office in NYC for five years from '99 to '04...

and we all acknowledged that it was nothing more than a three-hour commercial for Macy's and NBC. If memory serves, and gods know that it's not what it used to be, the costs are even written off as "advertising."

For reference, the actual "parade" doesn't begin until an hour into the broadcast. The first hour is all Broadway or TV show production numbers.

[Fred Sanders]

3. This "parade" is intended to indoctrinate the masses further to buy unneeded manufactured

merchandise the following day.

The non-stop advertising conditions the consumer mind to accept that further debt is a minor problem compared to the major problem of being without the advertised merchandise.

And how dare the consumer terrorists disrupt this homage to mass commercialism over some unrelated event in Missouri...shocking.

[gopiscrap]

4. No kidding

it's all commercial bullshit!!

[Dont call me Shirley]

5. No fucking shit! I haven't been able to watch their dog and pony show for quite a while.

I really just want to watch the parade.

[longship]

6. How many product placements in that ten minutes? nt

[liskddksil]

7. The first hour is always performances of new Broadway productions

It takes that long for the parade to make it's way to Herald Square.

[tk2kewl]

8. and fuck KISS

really, who wants to watch that?

[HappyMe]

9. I watched it.

I always enjoy it.
The worst thing about it was fucking Kiss!

A couple of years ago we went to the city to see it. It was lots of fun.

[mulsh]

10. I haven't been able to watch in 15 years but yesterday I managed to watch

the whole broadcast. It was way more focused on product placement and banal acts than I remember from years ago. Slickly timing the floats and balloons between up and coming country singers, boy bands and assorted marching bands is very impressive.

Towards the end one unfortunate high school girl took a spill right on camera. She recovered beautifully. It was about the only interesting and spontaneous thing I saw yesterday.

It will probably another 15 years or more until I try to watch the Macy's parade again. Thank God for the Rose Bowl parade.

[jillan]

11. Same here! We caught the end of the dog show & were looking forward to the parade while

the turkey was cooking.

I think we lasted 1/2 hour waiting for the parade. Then we found an old movie to watch.