Ad Prompts Serious Soul-Searching

During my current commute up from Santa Ana to Glendale, I began to see the most interesting billboards in an otherwise monotonous landscape. These particular billboards, unlike the other millions of unintelligible, propagandistic sales campaigns, were simply white. Up at the top read a single boldface sentence in black type: What would you like on your tombstone?

Hmmm.

Each day of the drive I pondered this philosophical question as if it might be the last I would ever have to answer. “Trusted Friend”? “Loved by All”? “Kind to Animals and Children”? Mark Twain said we should endeavor to live our life so that when we die, even the undertaker will be sorry.

As it turns out, Southern California (as I might have guessed) would never put up a billboard just to inspire a commuter’s introspective moral inventory. “Tombstone” is actually the name of a new pizza company out here; the last time I saw those billboards on Interstate 5 they had added to the slogan: “Pepperoni and cheese.” But I had nevertheless been provided with important food for thought--pun intended--during my long hours on the freeway.

Rather than just cursing at the slow drivers in the fast lane or zoning out to rap music bleating from the car next to me, I actually pondered my existence and the meaning of it all. Scary. Might this little bit of soul-searching have caused a slight behavioral change when I arrived at the account site? Was I kinder, more thoughtful, did I work harder, pay more attention to detail?

When I began contemplating the big picture, everything kind of came in, as part of, not apart from, the universe at large. The end result: Thanks to an unusually clever ad campaign, a painfully boring commute became a life-examining drive, and bade me find the elusive answer to that age-old question: Do they deliver?

N.J. SMEETS, Santa Ana