Suddenly a new form of advertising appears

Cafe Society
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1

I was walking along the display of large screen TVs in Walmart when I noticed that two of them are using the image of the TV on the box to advertise a show on that TV. The first was for Conan O’Brien Plus which is apparently only available on Samsung TVs. The second was for a Star Trek (?) movie with a bigger than life size image of the star’s head in pseudo 3D popping off the box.

This is a great new medium. The image is 5 or 6 feet wide and right at eye level in the store. The next level will be product placement with Conan or whoever drinking a Pepsi while advertising their show on the TV on the box in the Walmart.

2

How is this “new”?

Stranger

3

How about an ad within an ad?

4

How is in not new? A TV show and a film being advertised in a photograph of a television set printed on a box containing the television.

5

I’m pretty sure that is a plot line ripped off from 30 Rock, except with Jack Donaghy that would be the Funcooker and “MILF Island”.

Stranger

6

And another new form of advertising appears:

7

Well, at least it wasn’t Michael McDonald’s Yah Mo B There, again.

8

That’s actually better than I expected. I figured it would lock the door until you watched an ad. Verified by eye monitoring cameras.

9

A good reason not to get a smart fridge.

10

Here’s hoping somebody turns this into a “Suck it, Jin-Yang” situation.

11

I predict a rash of suddenly smashed TV monitors on smart fridges if this happens.

Or else they’ll start putting kids’ drawings up on the screen with duct tape instead of magnets.

12

Who looks at a refrigerator and says “I wish this thing was smarter?”

13

If it could mix a mean Manhattan…

Stranger

14

Yes. I just got a new fridge. Here’s what it does and does not do:

  • Does: Keeps things cold.

  • Does not: Chatter with the internet, communicate with other wi-fi connected devices, advise me about grocery shopping, or push advertising.

I’m happy with my choice.

15

Or they would deliberately stick magnets all over the screen, whether they have kids or not, because it would ruin the screen.

16

Dave Barry did a column on Smart Refrigerators decades ago. What stands out in my mind is the Jeff MacNelly cartoon that illustrated it.

Dave: I’ll have another beer!

Refrigerator: I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave. I’m registering disturbing amounts of flab.

(The echoing of HAL9000 from 2001 makes this priceless.)

17

Well, I won’t be satisfied until an even higher level shows me looking through the store window at Conan or whoever drinking a Pepsi while advertising their show on the TV on the box that includes the picture of me in the Walmart.

Yeah, I’m never satisfied!

18

There’s a box from a giant TV around the corner from my desk. It has a sticker advertising Conan O’Brien with three pictures of him, but he’s with a leopard or something. No Pepsi.

19

According to last week’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, a new program in China will require people to watch an ad before then can obtain toilet paper in a public restroom.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/g-s1-94979

20

Coke.