A Wednesday factoid...

I haven't been paying much attention to commercials lately, which I would have if I were studying for a show right now. You need to know your consumer products, and especially the ads, symbols, slogans and songs associated with them, past and present. Like this one I just made up:

John Mellencamp took some flak from fans for licensing his song "Our Country" to be used in commercials for which pick-up truck?

A) Nissan Titan

B) Chevrolet Silverado

C) Toyota Tundra

D) Dodge Ram

Nice, tight little question? 

I'm putting the answer at the end of the post so you can figure it out first. I was reminded of this when I heard Mellencamp interviewed today on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross. If you're studying, you can pick up lots of useful things from radio and TV talk shows. There's a certain way of listening to/watching them: Just as you would skim a magazine for interesting little factoids, and pay less attention to speculation, suggestion, nuance, etc., that's how you have to listen to a talk show or news story. As much as I enjoyed Gross's convo with Mellencamp, my quiz show antennae never quite go down, so they started quivering madly when I heard that the song had been used in the commercial. That's how quiz show writers think: nouns, nouns, nouns, hard and indisputable and at least mildly interesting or unusual facts. That's what you need to be ready to pounce on and file away every time you listen to the radio or watch TV...don't worry, once you train yourself to do it, it NEVER quite goes away, even years afterwards... :(

Oh, the answer? The Chevy Silverado.