Wednesday, July 10, 2002
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Wednesday, July 10, 2002 |
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Cut the ads from PTC's July 4th parade
By JOHN MUNFORD Somebody's got to rein in not rain on Peachtree City's annual July 4th parade. This year's version was wonderful as usual, and we owe many thanks to the dozens of people who make it fun, from citizens who dug into their own pocket to feed candy to the masses (and decorate their golf carts) to the bands who lifted our spirits with music and the businesses and churches who put together unique patriotic floats. But as nice as the parade was, it is becoming more of a TV infomercial than an exercise in the patriotic spirit. This year, someone tried to pass off a septic tank truck as a parade float. Gimme a break! The company's business number and company name were prominently displayed, but the truck lacked any significant July 4th decorations. I'd give them a pass if they even bothered to blare patriotic music as they drove by, but there was no such luck. Isn't the whole idea of entering a July 4th parade to entertain the crowd? I guess we should be happy the truck didn't reek to high heaven! The septic tank truck was there for one reason only: to drum up business. If more than 20 minutes was spent decorating it, I'll eat my hat. Is this what we've come to? Is this the greedy American way? Are parade watchers going to fall like suckers for this business just because it was featured in the parade and because the company's flyers were shoved in our faces? Many other businesses made a real effort to please the parade crowd, and I'm not jumping on them. Tons of parade entries, from businesses to churches and other groups, handed out freebies like bottled water, Popsicles and coupons that were certainly appreciated by parade watchers. One church even handed out invitations to a cookout later that day, and the young lady passing them out near me was sincere in inviting others to attend. I was impressed. But other businesses would foist their flyers, practically dropping them in people's laps. Naturally, the only public benefit of these flyers was to line the businesses' pockets. The flyers were usually distributed by people walking alongside floats who this year were supposed to help clear the candy-crazed kiddies out of their float's path. From my vantage point, there were plenty of children standing on the pavement, but those nearest me were only shooed away two or three times. Bad parenting is the root of this problem, but that's another subject entirely. The combined McIntosh-Starr's Mill parade band which was GREAT, by the way took up the entire two lanes of the parkway ... as it should have! Adults plodding along in front of the band had to verbally shoo kids out of the band's path. Parade watchers also appreciated the musical floats featuring several youthful independent bands who either played live music or recordings of their music. It gave the parade a nice touch. Hopefully, next year's parade will be even better. The monster-truck size of some of the floats needs to be addressed (didn't this start out as a golf cart parade?) and something has to be done about the flyers, perhaps a ban altogether. After all, we didn't come to the parade to be bombarded with ads. We came to be entertained. Fortunately, the entertainment at last week's parade far overshadowed the advertising. But if action isn't taken, it will get progressively worse. Just my two cents, of course.
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