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The other day I was surfing the channels on TV when I came across the commercial above. I found it interesting because I had blogged before about competition and the drive to be the best. This Samsung Galaxy S II commercial made me wonder. The narrator mentions some interesting points:
"Nobody ever set their sights on second place."
"Who aspires to be almost remembered?"
"There's a reason there are no giant foam fingers that say, 'we are number three.'"
"No one wants to tell an average joke, make an underwhelming entrance, go out with a whimper."
"Nobody ever dances in front of the mirror with a hairbrush pretending to be the tambourine player."
"And there are definitely more kids dressed as batman than robin."
And the final point that really struck me was: "We all aspire."
Quite powerful, if you ask me, but why is it so? America, I believe, is seen to be a nation of 'go-getters', but how much of that is because we were taught by our parents to 'aspire'? Or was it society that told us to be that way? There's a common phrase: "If Johnny jumped off the bridge, would you?" Now that's an exaggerated situation, but it is a legitimate question when asked about less hyperbolized situations. If everyone around you is competing to be the number one, would that make you compete to be the best?
I think you make a very interesting point. If nobody around me was striving to be the best, why would I want to be? Who wants to have something that is not coveted? We are a society of comparisons. Who did better, worse, the most, the least? We are taught to be an extreme, to be the best, or else there is no point in trying in all. It is in our American ways to want only what others want as well.
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