Category Archives: Advertising

It Does Make Me Wonder

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I am not a big fan of football. However, on a hot lazy afternoon, I have been known to begin watching a game or two, mostly because it helps me fall fast asleep.

However, as I flipped through the channels, I noticed that there was not one local game on today. They had one game from the east coast and one from the west. The closest team playing was Auburn. (Just where is Auburn anyway?)

It does make me wonder, just who or why would any advertisers want to pay to broadcast those games. I have no idea how many of those watching actually finished any of them with their eyes, and ears, open.

They Stole My Idea

Posted in Advertising, Pizza by

Two advertisers are using my idea and they never got my permission. Do you suppose they read my book or part of it about floaters.

A furnature store ad has folks floating around. A pizza outfit shows floaters delivering pizza. Don’t you think they should at least give me a credit so I could sell a few books. At least 2 or 3 anyway.

Don’t you think, it’s just not right.

My best guess… they’ll just ignore me. They can do things like that.

Intelligence and Actors

Posted in Advertising, Bribes, Deceit by

Contrary to the thought of some, it does not take a great deal of intelligence to be an actor, just a script, a good memory and the ability to pretend your something your not. Some might even call it the ability to make believe.

Don’t get me wrong. Some actors are very intelligent, but not all. Take the ad I saw one night. The man stood there and told me I should not let the water run while I brush my teeth…in order to save water.

When I saw the ad, I shook my head and thought about it a while. In this case, I not only knew the actor wasn’t so bright, but one who wrote the script wasn’t all that brilliant either. The man telling me not to waste water likely had a big house that used more water in one day than I use in a month. Moreover, he lives in California where fresh water is far more sparse.

We must remember that the Jessica Fletcher woman doesn’t catch the bad guy because of her incredible abilities observance and deduction. The fact of the mater was that she simply read the script. All those guys on that Scorpion show, they weren’t really geniuses. Even more, most of the things they did on the show would not have worked. Not even the writers were all that smart.

I love the way actors just press one or two keys on a keyboard and poof, the answer pops up on the screen. That is pure Hollywood. First, it usually takes several keys. Second, it generally takes a while. It would seem Microsoft is responsible for that. Windows nowadays is getting slower than molasses.

However, when an actor stands up there and tells us something or other is so, we really need to take it with a grain of salt. All they are doing is reading a script. They may or may not agree with what they read. After all. They are paid for it. When people are paid to say something, it makes it difficult for me to believe they believe what the are saying.

I have some experience on the matter. Some actor stood up there and said how good product xyz is. When I go out and buy that product, I find out the actor was either ignorant or lying. It makes no difference to me which. It amounts to the same thing.

By the way, this sort of goes for baseball and football players too. After all, that athlete is getting a lot of money to say how good the product is, even if he never used it.

One more thing everyone should remember. That actors job is to deceive you, to make you think, if only for a short time, that he is someone, perhaps something he isn’t. If he doesn’t fool you, he isn’t a good actor.

Not Taking No for an Answer

Posted in Advertising, Being serious about Sirius by

Sirius called me today. This after I told them not to send me any more Emails. This after I filled out a questionnaire for them…explaining I did not want the service and exactly why. It angered me. Not only did they have someone to call to try to get me to change my mind, I couldn’t even understand the woman.

I have no idea what her accent was but she had to repeat herself three times before I could figure out who she was representing, and then barely. How in the world am I supposed to carry on a conversation with the woman? If they are going to pester me, they should at least do it with someone who knows how to speak English.

So, tonight I looked them up on the web. Nowhere, but nowhere do they have any place to leave a note a complaint. I guess they figure they won’t get any complaints that way. I can call them during business hours of course. I do wonder how that would go. Moreover, I wonder if it would do any good. They simply do not want to take no for an answer.

I guess the next step is a letter. I suspect that won’t work either. Perhaps a word to the auto dealer will work. They just might have a little more clout.

There is simply no excuse for any corporation to behave this way. Moreover, they really need to have some way of saying no without an act of Congress. It has been over two months since I purchased the car now. Does anyone out there have any suggestions?

My suggestion. If you buy a car and you don’t want Sirius, you might want to have them put it in the contract. I mean the idea was a three month trial. What they really meant was 3 months trying my patience.

Targeted Ads

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Lately, I have noticed a TV ad. If you ignore what they are advertising, objectively a person would swear it was targeting 6th graders.

The fact is that it is aimed at adults. Even so, the evidence shows it must be working. There are a bunch of full grown adults buying lottery tickets.

Some would say it is a good thing as it permits more students to attend college.

I guess I am in the minority, but I don’t think that is a good thing. It is called letting ends to justify the means. In the end we will regret the means.

Sadly, it was not that long ago that the majority of Americans would agree with me. Then again, we are now referring to folks who think a lot like 6th graders.

It’s not What You Save

Posted in Advertising by
Daily writing prompt
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
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Many times when I was a young lad, I would read an add about how much the savings would be to buy this that or the other thing. Finally, I was told, it’s not what you save, but what you pay.

There is a corollary to that. The more savings they advertise, the more the expensive the product. For instance if they advertise a $1000 savings on a diamond ring, the cost is likely more than the ring they advertise a savings of $100.

In other words, if I were to buy both, chances are that I would pay much more for ring that I’d save the thousand on. Naturally, if you want the more expensive ring, it is up to you. But know that will be paying more.

As I pick up a circular and I see the advertisement of a $50 savings, it makes me wonder how much it was marked up before the ad. And, of course, my assumption is that the more the savings the more it was marked up.

Regardless, the bottom line, as the businessmen like to say, it is the price. How much am I going to have to pay to change the ownership of the product. Everything else is simply a distraction.

Very frequently, I find I cannot afford the savings. Other times, it’s just more than I want to pay. Finally, sometimes, I know of other places that sell the same product for less, in which case, the savings is really not a savings at all.

Aspartame Phobia

Posted in Advertising, experience by

It seems every now and then some expert comes up and says that we should ban aspartame. In the meantime, we ought not use it. It is dangerous.

I have taken note, it does cause problems for some, usually headaches. I have known a few folks who can’t use it. I guess there are other reasons.

On the other hand, diet sodas are one of the few things I can really enjoy nowadays. I have been drinking diet soda since they came out with aspartame and I have felt no ill affects. Maybe one day I will, but not yet.

I really do believe that some folks just have too much time on their hands trying to spoil things for others. I don’t know. Maybe they work for some conglomerate representing sugar. I have news for them. Sugar is bad for me too. I’m diabetic. If I get too much sugar, I have real problems. I know. It’s happened to me. Better for me to drink diet drinks rather than send my sugar through the roof… and I am sure I am far from being alone.

It does sort of remind me of a dietary expert on TV I saw one time. She was in favor of never eating processed food. The host of the show asked her, “If I put a round steak through a grinder, does that make it a processed food?”

Without hesitation, she replied, “Yes.” Never even tried to explain it.

Some of these experts need to find something useful to do. Let’s face it, if I take that same round steak and put it on a grill whole, then it is processed. Yes, and there are some who think char-broiling meat can cause cancer.

I don’t buy that. Jesus made fish on an open fire for the disciples. If there was something wrong with that, I suspect he would have baked it. Certainly better than eating it raw. You can pick up all sorts of diseases eating things raw. Some have actually died from it.

Bottom line. If they don’t want to use aspartame, no one is twisting their arm. No one will hold a gun to their head. They don’t have to. However, I bet they will start having second thoughts when they start pushing 300 or 350 on the scale.

One small hint for the experts, it is a whole lot easier keeping that 5 pounds off than it is to lose it.

Somebody’s Watching!

Posted in Advertising, Christian values, Computers by

A few days ago, I was surfing the web, looking at electric riding mowers. They really, really want a lot for those things. When I first went into the Marines, I could have bought a nice car for what they want for those things.

Well, at least the mower would cut grass as well as providing a ride.

The point is, yesterday, I received a message in my email from a company selling mowers. Now I wonder. Just how did they know I was looking at mowers? More importantly, how did they know my email address?

Actually, I was only curious. I had no interest in buying one, at least for another year or two.

More importantly, if you was the one watching, I’d now not buy a tricycle from you. Don’t like folks who like spying on me. For all those others looking over my shoulder wishing to do business with me, you just might want to remember that.

It’s Only Natural

Posted in Advertising, Christian values, Lawyers and Representation, Uncategorized by

Those that have read my posts will know that I like poking at advertisements, especially the ones on TV. I feel they mostly are directed at those who have difficulty resoning, Moreover, they are frequently very repetitious… to the point I have been known to change channels. Then of course, I find something better on the other channel and I don’t switch back. It’s only natural. Why should I have to put up with bad advertising if the need doesn’t exist.

I do have another aspect of advertising to which I object. (You notice how I avoided ending the sentence with a preposition for those grammar fanatics. I used, “to which I object” instead of as most would use the, “object to.”)

Regardless, it would seem the new craze is, “contains only natural ingredients,” “Contains no drugs,” and so forth. I see right through the ruse and I hope others do as well. I mean, where did drugs come from in the first place but things found in nature. Penicillin started when a doctor discovered bread mold killed bacteria. By the way, I think everyone knows that mold on bread is very natural. I don’t suggest a person with an infection should use it on that cut though.

Lead is natural. It is an element found in nature. Many years ago we outlawed it in gas and paint. Though natural, it can cause bad problems. Mercury is natural. We used to use it a lot in thermometers and mining for gold. They even put the stuff in children’s toys. Not so much anymore. If it is used in mining gold, it is only with extreme caution. Mostly we use the electronic thermometers, far from occurring natually.

Many modern things in today’s society allow us to avoid the old natural stuff and that is a good thing. In the past, it was quite common for kids to suffer lead poisoning. Nowadays, we are replacing the lights containing led with the not natural L.E.D.s (Smaller, safer and much lasts much longer) We have better paint, longer lasting paint that is lead free. Even the autos are having to run on lead-free diets. Better for all. Even the cars are lasting longer.

I understand the concept of natural meds. Really I do. Still we must be careful. Just because something is completely natural, it does not mean necessarily that it is better or even safer.

My advice is to face all ads with speculation. Just because something is advertised on TV, it does not naturally follow that it is good, better or best. At 73, I have learned that lesson more than once.

Just trying to save y’ll the pain of finding stuff out on your own. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to straighten out those advertisers a little. I really don’t like deceit anywhere I see it.

Best TV Ad of the Year

Posted in Advertising, Uncategorized by

Yellow Wood has my vote for turning out the best advertisement of the year. They always are medium to good, but this one was particularly good.

A bunch of beavers sitting around a campfire. They all have sticks with marshmallows on them. Once they have marshmallows roasted, they take them off the sticks and toss them over their back. And then, of course, they eat the sticks.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t see that one coming. It’s a shame I don’t have any reason to buy a bunch of wood. For sure, if I did, I’d make sure it’s Yellow Wood.