Support my cause - I Love Waffles!

Okay, so, we as a society really need to stop cannibalizing images to make them stand for our own purposes. Let me just describe the scene for you:

I'm driving down the road on my way to work this morning, and I pass a car with a magnetic ribbon on the back. You've seen these before, they have really good messages of "remembrance," yellow ribbons to remind us of soldiers overseas, pink ribbons to remind us of the fight against breast cancer, even black ribbons in memory of Prisoners of War.

Except, this one was completely different. This was a white ribbon. Okay so far. But here's where it gets odd - the ribbon in question had the words, "I LOVE SOCCER!" scrawled across it. So... what started out as fights against diseases and supporting the troops has turned into the appropriate way to express completely pointless and innocuous things. Don't they have better ways of doing this? Like, bumper stickers, internet message board signatures, or in the depressing silence of your bedroom as you utter a prayer to David Beckham?

Incidentally, this car did NOT have spinner hubcaps, so I'll save that for another blog, as a friend of mine mentioned this as a particular pet peeve.

Back on topic, it's not that supporting a cause is a bad thing, nor is it objectionable to announce to the world your love for certain people, places, things, or ideals. But can't we just leave certain images alone, and allow them to represent that for which they were originally intended? A white "I LOVE SOCCER" ribbon is a bit like having, say, a brown ribbon with the words "I FINISHED THE DENNY'S GRAND SLAM IN UNDER NINE SECONDS SO THEY GAVE IT TO ME FOR FREE."

Or maybe like a Ford logo inside a Jesus Fish....

Don't get me wrong. Like I said, I like the original "cause" ribbons. And I actually like soccer, too. But whereas I can totally understand rallying support for troops overseas and fighting illnesses, I can't wrap my mind around rallying people to support your preference of European foot-sport.

I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, though. If we as a society persist in stealing images and twisting them around to inane purposes, then my first act will be to file a patent on the image of a Crucifix with a "Kilroy was here" painted on it... and also a trademark on Andy Warhol's iconic image of Marilyn Monroe, but with a Photoshopped speech bubble saying, "I love Diet Pepsi!"