# Commercials may have finally hit rock bottom **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198 "2022-10-13T17:04:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/221 "2023-01-08T01:19:57Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Add St. Jude to that list for me. Goddamn, they are pushing hard! Every channel, all day long. How many damn kids could they have saved with that advert money??? - I’m willing to bet that they get higher donations when the ads run compared to not. And the extra amount is far above the cost of the ads. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/222 "2023-01-08T01:26:49Z")
St Jude is already the richest childrens hospital in America, with over six billion in reserves. They really don’t need your money. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/223 "2023-01-08T01:32:25Z")
Current expenses run 2 billion a year. > **[Our unique operating model](https://www.stjude.org/about-st-jude/unique-operating-model.html)** > > There are great research institutions, great hospitals and great charities — we are all three. Learn more about our unique operating model > We are proud that 82 cents of every dollar received from donations, research grants, insurance recoveries and investment returns goes to support the current and future needs of St. Jude. Our donors can trust that their giving has helped save the lives of thousands of children. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/224 "2023-01-08T01:45:02Z")
And they raise about that much each year. Plus they get funding from research grants and such. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/225 "2023-01-08T02:45:28Z")
I’ll take one of yours. Don’t think I’ve seen it. Of course, I have no idea who Austin James is. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/226 "2023-01-08T03:18:51Z")
I don’t either. I’d never heard of him until the commercial. He claims to be a musician that has a problem with diabetic finger sticks. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/227 "2023-01-08T03:38:02Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > > [@Gatopescado](#): > > > > How many damn kids could they have saved with that advert money??? - > > I’m willing to bet that they get higher donations when the ads run compared to not. And the extra amount is far above the cost of the ads. Yeah, that’s how advertising is supposed to work, in general. They presumably wouldn’t spend the money on advertising if they didn’t think it was going to bring in more money than they spent. I admit, I am bothered when I see something advertised heavily, and I think of all the money being spent on advertising. I am hesitant to spend money on something that is heavily advertised, because I imagine that my money is going, not to the quality of the product that I’m getting in return, but to the advertising. And yet, I wonder, if they didn’t advertise so heavily, might their prices have to be even higher, because they’d need higher profit margins to make up for the lower sales volume? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/228 "2023-01-08T03:50:57Z")
The latest Chipotle ad could be subtitled “The Soundtrack of Stupidity”. You see meat being cooked on a griddle, as an employee explains that the sizzling sound is the “soundtrack” of Chipotle, signifying that their food is always fresh. I’m willing to bet that if you put rancid meat on a hot griddle, it’ll sizzle too. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/229 "2023-01-08T04:04:58Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I’m willing to bet that if you put rancid meat on a hot griddle, it’ll sizzle too. - Of course it will. Rancid meat is _juicy_. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/230 "2023-01-08T05:14:31Z")
I just saw an ad for the “US Money Reserve”, some sort of obvious grift involving gold. These scam artistes have given up all pretense of subtlety. It is disturbing that shit like this is even legal. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/231 "2023-01-08T14:45:26Z")
And the ads I’ve seen for Us Money Reserve target seniors. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/232 "2023-01-08T16:09:38Z")
Out of macabre curiosity, I found a 2022 ad by the “U.S. Money Reserve”, featuring Chuck Woolery of “Wheel of Fortune” fame. Chuck talks about a contestant who supposedly won $10,850 in 1976, and wonders how he would have fared if he’d gotten his prize in gold and left it in a vault, compared to stashing the same amount in cash. Chuck claims the gold investment would’ve gone up by more than ten times by 2022, which is [a blatant falsehood](https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart). The actual return would’ve been less than 3X. If the 1976 gold buyer had cashed in in 2001, he would’ve _lost_ a substantial amount of money. Worse, a person buying gold near its peak price of around $2500 an ounce in early 1980 would have taken a total bath if needing to cash in at the 2001 low of $457 an ounce (the price has since recovered to around $1860 an ounce). So for an older person hoping for a sizable boost in retirement funds, gold is a poor investment. You’d be taking a big chance that the per-ounce value didn’t drop substantially by the time you needed the money. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/233 "2023-01-08T16:39:02Z")
Locally, there is are ads for a real estate outfit called “72sold”. The guy in the ad keeps waving his arms around like some sort of crazed Muppet character. I guess it’s a legit company, but the ad is annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/234 "2023-01-08T16:45:53Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > But now that we are all adults, I want to point out how hard that attitude made things for girls. > [@MandaJo](#): > > But now that we are all adults, I want to point out how hard that attitude made things for girls. Yeah, we are all adults here. There’s no reason to talk about a normal physical function as if it is so outrageously disgusting that half the population needs to be protected from knowing anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/235 "2023-01-08T17:45:44Z")
The region between the belly and the vulva is sometimes called the “pudenda”, which derives from the Latin _pudere_, a verb that means “shame”. The cultural disinclination to treat women’s bodily functions reasonably goes way back. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/236 "2023-01-08T20:15:23Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > reasonably I’m trying to interpret what function this word is serving in the sentence. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/237 "2023-01-08T20:25:52Z")
Did you mis the “dis” in “disinclination”? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/238 "2023-01-08T20:42:56Z")
Reasonably in the sense of with sound reason rather than squicky irrational eww eww eww. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/239 "2023-01-08T20:50:13Z")
Austin James is that kid who played Elvis in that Tom Hanks movie. I didn’t knew who the heck he was either. I had to look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198/240 "2023-01-08T21:04:39Z")
_Austin Butler_ played Elvis in the Baz Luhrmann movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commercials-may-have-finally-hit-rock-bottom/973198.md?page=13)