Yet more hysteria

Following on from all the shit at the end of last year about certain councils banning video-cameras and cameras from school nativity plays because of the media hysteria about paedophiles, The Register is today reporting that some councils are now equally paranoid about mobile phones with cameras being used in swimming pools etc..

When will this sort of thing calm down again? At the end of the day it’s far more likely that someone who was into that type of thing would simply go along to the swimming pool and watch from the visitor’s gallery, or even just go swimming and “accidentally” brush past people/children. I despair.

Lemsip and Lockets, oh my

Interesting to see that both Meg and Vicky both commented on the naff Lockets and Lemsip ads in the last 24 hours.

I was going to blether on about this a while back, but kind of hoped that if I ignored it, they’d go away.

I’ve never really understood the entire craze for ‘flu and cold medication, to be honest. At the end of the day, both are viral in cause, and as such, there’s a grand total of fuck all we can do about them. The medications don’t cure the illness, they just alleviate the symptoms. It’s the same with people who get the flu and go to the doctors – they can’t do a fucking thing, it’s just that we seem incapable of realising that there are still plenty of things we can’t cure, even though we “should be able to”.

As for the ads, well, they’re just shite really, aren’t they? Not really any more offensive or crap than the craze over the last couple of years for the other ones where the flu medication “sorts the men from the boys” or whatever other bobbins the advertising fuckwits came up with during their latest crack-fuelled brainstorming session.

For myself, I have absolutely no idea whether these campaigns are all by the same agency just recycling ideas over and over (I suspect this is quite probable though) or if one agency came up with the idea and the others stole paid homage to it. I don’t know if they’re supposed to be all self-referential, ironic and post-modernist, or if their down to ad execs wanting the world to go back to the 80’s “greed is good” ethos. Nor do I care.

It’s all advertising bobbins, and at the end of the day all it does is make me take note of which brands I wouldn’t buy even if I ever really did bother with flu medication in the first place. (At this point I should point out that I got “advised” to take some over the last couple of weeks – got Beechams Flu Pills, and took ’em. Yes, I felt better, but that’s because they’re loaded to the gills with paracetamol and caffeine. And then I felt shit again, because they’re also loaded to the top with E110 Sunset Yellow food colouring, which always makes me feel like shit.)

Easter

Having inflicted some daytime television on myself for once (call it a motivational exercise to make me want to work) I couldn’t help noticing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is busy banging out a half hour video on the life and works of Jesus Christ. The ideal present for that special person in your life – get ’em into the Morons Mormons.

No, he’s totally ‘armless

I’m sure I’ve seen too many horror films or something – but whatever the reason, while it’s very clever etc., the idea of a double arm transplant really does make me shudder.

Well, that’s new…

I’m sorry, but Ron Davies’ excuse that he was “watching badgers” at a well known gay haunt has to be one of the funniest things I’ve read in ages.

Still, if he can come up with an excuse like that and think people will believe it, he’s certainly ready to be the next Prime Minister.

Congratulations

A quick little additional post – congratulations to Gert on writing the 500th D4D comment on Haloscan.

It’s Spring – time for a rebranding exercise

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but Immac, that well-known cause of depilatory screams everywhere, has now been renamed as Veet. Why? Who knows. I can’t think of what the name Veet is supposed to represent.

Personally, I’d have opted for “Yelp“, or maybe even “Jesus Fucking Christ, can’t you think of a better way to do this?“. But “Veet“? It sounds more like a German chiropody cream.

Also, there’s a new “calorie-free sugar replacement” called – um – Splenda. *Spit*. I hate that name – I think it’s the way it sounds like a word, and actually isn’t spelled the same way at all. And again, what the fuck is so “Splenda”ful about calorie-free sugar replacements? I can’t come up with a decent alternative to it, but the name really does suck arse.