Annual Non-Imaginative Day
Posted: Thu 14 February, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Valentine's Day Leave a comment »So yes, Valentine’s Day. Again.
It’s the day where unimaginative couples everywhere buy cards, flowers, chocolates and/or food to say something they should be doing on every day except this one.
Enjoy. Or, you know, say it with roses…
Rose with a skull in it
The Value of Romance
Posted: Mon 11 February, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Domestic, Food, Marketing, People, Thoughts, Valentine's Day Leave a comment »While out over the weekend, I went past a Wetherspoons pub, and they’ve got a stunning offer for Valentine’s Day.
2 for twenty quid – feel valued yet?
Yup – take your beloved out and show her how much you love and value them by making it a Meal for Two for £20. What could possibly be more romantic than that ?
And the sad thing is, I bet they’ll be bloody packed.
Weird Marketing
Posted: Fri 1 February, 2013 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism, Marketing, People, Valentine's Day, Weirdness 2 Comments »The other day, I got the strangest marketing email in a long while.
It’s from Apple, which probably explains a lot, but still, you’ve got to wonder when it comes to a subject/tag-line like this…
iPad or iPad mini. The perfect choice for Valentine’s Day.
I just can’t compute how that even works .
The additional image didn’t help explain, either.
What. The. Fuck?
Infamy, Infamy, they’ve all got it infamy
Posted: Mon 28 January, 2013 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism, D4D™, Legal, Marketing, Privacy, Thoughts Leave a comment »Eighteen months ago, I had to issue a retraction of comments I’d made about the professionalism of a marketing manager and his company, due to some seriously heavy-handed legal threats from over the water.
As a quick “I wonder”, I did a Google search today on the name of the marketing manager and his company. And yes, D4D still comes up as the first result on Google for that search.
When you think about it, that’s really funny. (And is also what I warned them would happen when the legal people insisted I use his name as part of the apology on the title)
After all, this is a marketing manager of a major company – a company whose products also use the name D4D on some of them. He’s also always had the right of reply, I’ve never closed the comments on any of those posts. Nary an acknowledgement, not a rebuttal or apology for damaging the privacy policy of his own company, not even a “thanks for the apology”. Which, I suppose, shows the quality of the man.
And still, there I am, at the top of the search results.
It amused me, anyway.
Holiday Results
Posted: Tue 22 January, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, Weirdness Leave a comment »Sometimes I swear my brain works differently to everyone elses. (Or at least differently to the people who work in advertising agencies) I’ve just seen an advert saying
“Book your holiday with [company] before January 31st, and your first child comes free!”
And my first thought was “Well, I suppose if it’s conceived there…”
Embarassing Fat Bodies
Posted: Wed 16 January, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, 2012/13, Cynicism, Food, Health, People, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss Leave a comment »Channel 4’s got a new series of “Embarassing Fat Bodies” at the moment, and it’s really annoying me. Not just because of my own ongoing issues with weight-loss, but just because of the people.
I know I’ve a long way to go, that’s a foregone conclusion. As such I’ve probably not got much room to talk, currently. You know what? I really don’t care.
You see, the difference with me is that I’m doing something about it. I’m taking the hints from my body, and I’m doing something about it.
The people on Embarassing Fat Bodies just don’t – or at least haven’t – and it’s like they’re waiting for some bloody wizard to come along and wave a wand at them to fix the problem.
One of the people on this week’s programme had a hernia the size of a basketball, a lipoma the size of two footballs, is housebound, and has a BMI of 79. Yes, seventy-fucking-nine! But still she eats – and admits to eating – meals for three or four people.
Another one, 35 stone, BMI of 66 waddled in, having done a food diary, talking about “a bag of crisps”. It turned out that what she meant by that was the huge family-bag size bag of crisps. This is someone who can’t stand, and has brought an office-chair into her kitchen so she can scoot around the kitchen rather than walking around it. But still, a diet of crisps, chocolate, full-fat fizzy drinks.
How long does it take to pick up the hints? If you’re that size, at least cut down what you’re eating, or go for the healthier alternatives!
Again, I’m not perfect, I know. Some of my diet isn’t grand – but my intake is on the low side, not the excesses listed by some of the people on this programme.