Joke-a-day for 99 cents?? Is this a joke??

In My Humble Opinion
1

If this has been covered before, I apologize, someone please attach the link.

If not, can someone please advise if this is a joke commercial or not? If it is legit, which I fear it is, could someone explain who exactly is the target audience for this service? Take away the 90% of the country with a computer or access to one, as they can go to thousands of FREE joke websites and get every joke ever written, for FREE. Then take away the people with access to a bookstore or library, where you can get dictionary sized jokebooks for FREE from the library or for may 20 bucks at a bookstore. Then remove those with the Comedy Channel and remove those with no interest in jokes and what is left- maybe 5 people whose love of humor goes so far as they would pay 30 bucks a month for someone to text the ONE joke per day? I mean seriously, if someone came up to you and said “I have a hysterical joke but you have to pay me a dollar to hear it” would you not tell them to fuck off? Anyone who can clear up anything I am overlooking would be appreaciated. Also anybody who knows how many subscribers this service has, I would pay a dollar to find out the number :slight_smile:

2

Well if you want to piss off a friend send the company a text from their phone. :wink:

3

My guess is the target audience is teenagers who get their cell phone bill paid by their parents.

4

The target is people who don’t read the fine print. They dial the number, get a bunch of jokes and a shocking bill at the end of the month. Then they probably have a miserable time trying to cancel the service.

5

So, what is the deal these commericials saying “txt Bowling Ball to 109338”? Do you then get spammed with advertisements relentlessly? Are the advertisement companies behind this, or the cell phone co’s, or both?

6

I realized I was getting old when I started thinking “Why would anyone pay for text messages?” especially at like 5-25 cents each message. If I want to talk to someone that bad, I’ll call otherwise it can wait till I’m online to IM or email them. This cell phone thing is getting out of hand, IMO

7

I have always figured that those are rip-off monthly subscription deals: “Send a text message to blahblah and get cool new Ringtonez for free!” which then turn out to be a subscription to a $4.99/mo service that provides ring tones.

I wonder how those can be legal considering that their intent is transparent: probably less than one percent of the people who send the text message actually realize that they are signing on for a monthly commitment that will have arcane cancellation procedures that involve notarized documents in triplicate.

Likewise, I am mystified how sending a text message is enough to seal a contract.

8

I could answer your question … for a dollar.

9

I used to call that joke line when I was young, maybe in the late '70’s. It drove my parents nuts. And the jokes were terrible. Here’s an example, the only one I remember:

“My wife is bow-legged and I’m knock-kneed. When we stand side by side, we spell the word ‘OX’!”

Like I said. Terrible.

10

It’s one thing to pay for text message content (like a joke a day) but the text message utility itself is pretty handy.

If you don’t know the whereabouts of the person you want to speak with - or you do, and you know they are indisposed- and it’s not urgent that you speak with them right away, sending a text message is great.

Send “pick up milk on your way home” or “call me after work” or “I won’t be back till 9” and the recipient gets your message quick and easy, whenever they look at their phone next.

Much easier than leaving a voicemail and the recipient having to dial their voicemail system, punch in their code, hit 1 to retrieve new message and listen to the message then hit 5 to delete it.

It’s not really used for “if you want to talk to someone that bad.” More like “if you want to quickly convey a message that’s not urgent enough to require an actual call.”