Sometimes Google Adsense makes, well, sense — such as the Ancestry.com ad I’m seeing in the rail at right — I’ve really been into building my family tree lately.
Sometimes I am mystified. That’s the case with the “Soma” ad you see above.
Doubly mystified. To me, “Soma” means:
- The therapeutic and recreational drug of choice in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, where “A gramme is better than a damn” is axiomatic. It is used to keep people in that creepy utopia from feeling disagreeable emotions. Life is tough? Take a soma holiday!
- The muscle relaxer I have used at times over the years — generic name “carisoprodol.”
I don’t associate it with ladies in swimsuits. But apparently, that’s a thing now.
I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s that their products are meant to fit women’s physical forms, since “soma” means “the body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.” You know, as in “psychosomatic.”
But it caught my eye…
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Here, it’s more like, A gram is better than a… DAH-yum!
Soma the company sells lingerie and sleepwear (wikipedia); Soma the Hindu deity is the god of the moon (long-ago undergraduate course on “Eastern Religions”). Maybe that’s the tie-in? I doubt a company would name themselves after something as negative as Aldous Huxley’s soma. That’d be like naming your company Soylent Corporation.
It’s PEOPLE!…
Years ago, my wife had a co-worker who sent out a mass email asking anyone if they wanted to buy somas. My wife, oblivious to the term, assumed it was a Mexican dish and responded back. “That sounds great. I love Tapas!”
As you can guess the co-worker was terminated minutes later.
For years I teased her about ordering “Pollo con Flexeril” or “Oxycontin Relleno”.
Now I’m getting Soma ads more than any other kind.
I’m also getting some Victoria’s Secret ads, interspersed with some offering me beautiful young Russian women.
There’s a theme here…