Are We Relevant?

Having dispensed with his regular television months previous, the parson ended his day watching the latest available episode of Master Chef on his laptop via Hulu.

The program was, of course, in Hulu fashion, brought to him with “limited commercial interruption.” Weeks previous the parson had noted when those “limited commercial interruptions” ran there appeared a bar in the top right hand corner asking him, “Was this ad relevant to you?” There was a place to click on either “yes” or “no.” When the parson noted this feature the limited commercial interruption was for a Gerber baby food ad. The parson surmised that all six of his seven grandchildren were beyond the baby food stage and that he was reasonably sure the seventh was the last, clicked on the “No” tab to indicate this particular limited commercial interruption was, indeed, not relevant to him.

Over the course of a few weeks, the parson continued to click on various ads, sometimes indicating the commercial was relevant, sometimes not. And frequently he clicked on the “No” tab again in regards to the continuing Gerber interruption. But the ad kept running anyway.

On this particular night, the parson once again clicked on the Gerber limited commercial interruption to indicate it was not relevant. Thirty minutes later another, granted different, Gerber baby food limited interruption appeared.

The parson finished viewing the program, shut down the laptop, turned out the lights, climbed into bed, and as he pulled the covers up muttered to Charlie Brown, his faithful canine companion asleep on his bed in the corner, “I wonder, Charlie Brown, how many church goers feel like I'm feeling right now?”