Seen at the Gym

It's Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, a weeklong period in which the network's shows focus on sharks. They've been doing it since 1987, but you've got me as to why. I watch DC's nature programs quite often, and the shark ones are like the others; some good and some not. Why they've been spending a whole week on them each year since Ronald Reagan was president is something I can't figure out, but it works for them.

They have cute little promos about it using couples. One, for example, has a pretty tough-looking dude and his lady bragging about how many times they've watched Shark Week and then, after a brief flash of a leaping set of carcharine jaws, cuts to the tough dude hiding behind his lady and asking if it's over yet. There are several others, such as the one I'll mention in a minute.

This evening, one of the gym TV's was turned to a program talking about and to people who'd been attacked by sharks. During the program, one of the little promo spots aired, in which a nerdish-looking couple both say excitedly how often they've watched the programs -- cue leaping carcharine jaws, and we're back to the same couple looking more than slightly mussed and sort of after-glowy. This spot, which I'm pretty sure was meant to imply that watching Shark Week is the same thing as having a really good time, aired right after a father talked about watching his son bleed to death in the emergency room after he finally managed to punch in the eye the shark that attacked the boy and make it let him go. And it aired right before a young woman described how her boyfriend managed to drag her away from an attacking shark closer to shore even though he'd lost his fingers and part of his leg to the same shark when it attacked him and he'd die not less than five minutes after he saved her life.

Very classy spot placement, Discovery Channel. Very classy.