The Excuse: The Way of Life
Gluttony, to gulp down or swallow. Not only does it mean to overindulge in gulping and swallowing, but it also means to obsess with anticipation over meals, to be anxious to eagerly devour delicacies, and to abstain from the needy. Does that only mean withholding food from the less fortunate? Or can it also mean to abstain other needs, such as shelter, clothing, etc.? When the word “gluttony” is mentioned does a king who is about to severely overindulge in a feast come to mind? Or does the image of an extremely “all my credit cards are maxed out, but the shopping must continue” shopaholic form? Does an image of a severely obese person who is in the act of jumping into a body of water with a crowd of people formed together in bleachers behind him just cheering him on the whole time with the slogan “Be All You Can Be” flirt in the mind? That is exactly the image that Harper’s Magazine formed when they asked several different types to join together in the act of creating images of and to promote the well known, none other than the seven deadly sins. In November of 1987, Harper’s Magazine made different adds to help promote the seven deadly sins. They asked different leading advertisement agencies to team up and help accomplish this goal. The advertisement that was specifically created for gluttony can be accredited to Fallon McElligot (agency), Hanson Dean (art director), Jarl Olson and Mike Lescarbeau (copywriters), Federal Express, and Wall Street Journal and Lee Jeans (clients). The ad that was fashioned from gluttony includes a surpassingly obese person who is in the act of jumping off a diving board into a huge body of water. In the mean while, there is a crowd, some sitting and some standing in bleachers, in the background steadily cheering him on the whole time. Only to encourage him more, the slogan “Be All You Can Be” is slapped across the bottom of the ad, right above the words “The Glutton Society, Helping people to be the most of themselves for over