MS: shit happens

So here’s the deal. I was at the CLSC’s travel clinic to see a doctor concerning my upcoming trip to Thailand. There, I picked up the Mirror. I was particularly upset by the “MS and me” article [People, March 9] because I think it really sends out the wrong idea to the average bear.

My name is Marla and I was diagnosed with MS when I was 17. I am now 19 years old and living quite happily. Considering this Lovie Horner character has a “shit happens” kind of attitude toward her disease (I share in said attitude), she seems to be feeling awfully sorry for herself.

The thing that people need to know about MS is that there are different types of it. I was “blessed” with the relapsing-remitting type. This means that I have suffered through numbness, dizziness, loss of dexterity and balance and a slew of other symptoms that come hand-in-hand with MS. These symptoms have fortunately cleared up (I am in remission) and could come back at any time.

There are ways of dealing with these symptoms. While I have had the fatigue, I have never once felt depression concerning my disease. Something else that wasn’t mentioned in the article is that there are medications available that help but don’t yet cure the disease. The medication I chose (Copaxone) might even help alleviate some of the above-mentioned fatigue. I have not had an attack in over a year and a half.

It sounds like Lovie may have a different type of MS than I do, but I feel it’s important for people to understand that it’s not something worth getting hysterical over.

I’ve embraced my potential wheelchair and hope to get a sidecar and a Ninja Turtle helmet as accessories for it when I will ultimately need it. Also, this no-backpacking shit is, well, shit. It may be true that right now, Lovie can’t get insurance, but if she can, and likely will, go into remission then insurance will be available. I would know as I bought my Thailand travelling insurance yesterday! Even without lying about my MS. I’ve also been to Europe and a few other places and my disease has not been a problem.

The real truth is that life is a big joke. Some people get cancer, some people get Parkinson’s, some people are born dead and some people get lucky. Either way, the key is making the best of it all. My disease is going to have to get used to me ’cause I’m sure as hell not going to live out the rest of my life catering to it.

Lovie should know and realize that even though she may have some hold-ups right now because of our disease, time will pass, things will change, opportunities will arise. Smile and ride your wave. It’s the only one you’ve got—sometimes mine feels like a tsunami too. Shit happens.

» Marla Schreiber

Down with branding

This is in reply to Daniel Hadley’s March 22 letter to the editor, “Supporting product placement.” He addressed an article from the March 9 Mirror, “Starring your brand,” in which I was interviewed about Brand Hype, my new Web resource on product placement in the movies, criticizing my ongoing investigation of this type of product placement. In particular, he makes the astonishing claim that audiences “would have left Cast Away in the first five minutes” if the story had involved a fictional shipping company (instead of having Fed Ex co-star alongside Tom Hanks).

Mr. Hadley’s assertions are odd for any number of reasons, but here are just three: We estimate that the Fed Ex logo appears in Cast Away 56 times. That’s some feat, even by contemporary product placement standards, especially in light of the fact that almost all of the action takes place on an uninhabited island. (Is this what Mr. Hadley means by “verisimilitude”?)

His claim that movies are full of brands because the world is full of brands is a common one, but it completely misses the point: When brands appear very prominently in movies (and TV shows and video games) it is most likely because marketers want them in there, not because directors collectively feel their creative efforts will be unworthy without them. (After all, they’re called product placement agencies, not “realism consultants.”)

Finally, given the very long histories of filmmaking and of branding, we need to ask why it’s only been in the last 20 years that product placement in the movies has become so pervasive. The most compelling answer I have yet found is that now, more than ever, advertisers are looking for ways to escape from their own immense clutter (and to avoid losing yet more ad dollars to distracted, disinterested or overwhelmed audiences, to fast-forwarding and TiVo). The movies are one of the very few places in our culture that have remained relatively untouched by advertisers—until now. It would be silly to suggest that we should never see brands in movies, but, as any movie director worthy of the name should be able to tell you (take note Michael Bay and Robert Zemeckis), effective storytelling through the medium of film will never be predicated on showcasing today’s famous brands, or, for that matter, the generic ones that used to bother Mr. Hadley so much.

» Matt Soar, Concordia University, www.brandhype.org

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