I’ve come to the conclusion that any commercial with fine print at the bottom of the screen (usually in white, so it’s impossible to read) is lying in the larger print. One hand gives, the other takes away.
The guy claiming that the average person has eight credit cards in their wallet is Paul Michael Glaser, who played the character Starsky on the TV show “Starsky and Hutch.”
Or one of the characters in the MAD Magazine parody, “Husky and Starch.” (Although, I can’t remember which one.)
Just mindless trivia, folks. (Just for those that don’t remember, their pimp informant-on-the-street was named Huggy Bear, which MAD also spoonerized. Heh!)
One not-quite-the-truth ad that always rankles me is just about any ad for a movie starring Ben Affleck. Ben (alongside Matt Damon) won an aOscar for writing a screenplay. Yet he is always billed as ‘Academy Award winner Ben Affleck’ in every movie he acts in. The vast majority of which he has had no part in writing.
Conspicuously, Matt Damon (who IMO has demonstrated that he is by far the more talented actor of the pair) doesn’t bill himself as an Oscar winner in movies that he acts (but doesn’t take part writing) in.
Safari predates Firefox by a year. It predates version 3 by 5 and a half. Netscape, based on the same original code, but a different program, was the one that predated Safari.
And Free Credit Report’s ads are obscene…the catchiness of the tunes just make them worse.
I don’t think you’ll find anybody stating the Smilin’ Bob is lying.
I’m not. <whistles quietly to self>
I still don’t understand that. I mean, I get the statistics and all, but I don’t understand how card holders have that many cards. What legitimate reason could you possibly have to keep 10 different credit cards?
A commercial that has bugged me lately is a commercial for a debt resolution company which talks about how most of these debt relief companies you see advertisements for are owned by the credit card companies themselves ZOMGBBQWTFBBCPTA!, then they proceed to encourage you not to give them any more of your money!
What I’ve never heard them explain is why it’s a bad thing that these companies are run by credit card companies. Nor do they address the fact that technically, it is the credit card companies’ money to begin with, or you wouldn’t need the service, amirite?
Also, cable companies in general bug me, like the ones that advertised that you couldn’t get local channels with satelite TV (not true: the instructions that come with the satellite dish indicate that you had the choice of purchasing local content, or, you know, using a TV antenna, like you presumably were doing before you got the dish anyways.)
I wonder if those commercials will disappear quickly now that the autopsy found that drug use may have contributed to his heart attack.
The thing that gets me is that, even if you count debit cards, store cards and ATM cards, I don’t know anybody with 10 cards. So are there really people out there with 20, 30 or 40 cards to balance out those of us that only have 1 or 2.
Hell, neither of my grandmothers even have a credit card.
Just a note about Duracell batteries. My GF and I often hike in the mountains and we are usually hiking up when others are coming down. We often come down in the darkness. We would never carry anything but Duracell. Yeah, they cost a little more, but the consistency is second to none. I believe the ads.
BAH! I’m just glad I can still find my pants in the morning.
A lot of department stores have credit cards, so for someone who shops a lot (mostly for clothes), I can see them having a Nordstrum card, a Macy’s card, a JC Penney card, etc. Between that and an Amex, a Visa, a debit/ATM card (or two), Diner’s Club, and a gas card, I can see how someone might rack up 10 or more (though I certainly can’t relate to this firsthand).
And may I just say that nothing I’ve done in the Air Force so far has been nearly as cool as the recruiting commercials?
I mean, I’ve gotten to drive around in the woods in a humvee, that was a riot, but when do I get my fighter jet?! 
I was extremely unnerved a couple of weeks ago when he unexpectedly appeared on my TV screen shouting “I’m Billy Mays and I’M BACK AGAIN!!!”
I would think at least that particular commercial would be pulled…
Don’t I know it! Six months they’ve been charging a card that I don’t use, and I just found out that the $100 credit I though I had on it for emergencies has been reduced to $10.
I always thought they came up with that “average” by taking the number of credit cards ever issued divided by the number of adults (presumably) in America et voila the average number is 8 per adult.
I have no idea how to find the total number of cards issued or if that is how it is done, but technically that could work, just neglecting the cards that have been canceled, replaced, invalidated or what have you (including those issued to now deceased or no longer American persons).
Just chimed in to say I don’t mind Zommmmmbie Threads if it’s an interesting one like this. And if it wasn’t fascinating, I wouldn’t have to open it.
So go ahead, gang, reply to that “Facts of Life, Season One Cliffhangers” thread…
Now this is irony: This thread has posts bashing the FreeCreditReport.com site for the deceptiveness of their ads. Yet the automated Google ad at the bottom of this page (at least, for me) is for FreeCreditReport.com .
Devil’s Advocate here: Maybe the fact that their name it "FreeCreditReport.com?, not “Free Credit Report Dot Com” gets them off the hook. That is, since there’s no spaces in their name, they’re not actually using the word “free”.
I recall back in 2001 or thereabouts, sitting in our lounge on the Enterprise watching TV. We were sitting in the drydock at norfolk naval shipyard.
Suddenly, a commercial came on. A Navy recruiting commercial.
‘Right now, on the USS Enterprise, the brave men and women are fighting for your freedom, etc, etc, etc’ as it shows a variety of shots of people doing really cool stuff, like launching aircraft, flying helicopters, and so forth.
The laughter was quite uproarious. We all wished we could serve on that Enterprise, since it didn’t seem to have any crap jobs such as sculling dishes, chipping paint, cleaning toilets, interminably boring machinery room watches, etc.
The same goes for Air Force recruiting ads. My brother spent his time in a cubicle in Omaha. The ads are full of cool shit. His job, while necessary, was not cool shit.