What’s up with CSX advertising? If you’re someone who ships by rail, you’re probably already set up with a shipper. And it isn’t like you can do a lot about the company that happens to own the track and siding next to your building. If it happens to be CSX, you use them. If it’s CN or UP or whatever, you deal with them. If you don’t ship things by rail, the commercial does nothing.
Anyone remember when they used to say their name in this real reverential manner? Just from their commercialsi it seemed like an upscale place to me.
Now it’s this two for one joint, seeminlgy no better sounding that Kmart.
Magic Jack!
Actually a gout flare may be a side effect. Gout normally sort of just hangs out doing nothing other than depositing uric acid crystals in certain joints [typically the big toe, but it can hit other joints] until something happens and the joint swells up like a sprained ankle, and hurts like a son of a bitch which is called a ‘flare’. There are drugs that can break up the deposits, and others that try to keep the body from producing the uric acid crystal deposits, and you can go in and flush the crystals out of the joint the hard way.
The reason you are seeing gout blabbed about on TV now is the USDA had (http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/centuries-old-treatment-gets-brand-name-price/2010-04-12) run good old colchicine through the approval process that they run brand new drugs through, and gave them a monopoly on producing it for the US market so what I could once get for about 5 cents per pill is now <checks pharmacy bag> $4.40 per fucking pill before the co-pay kicks in. So obviously they need to make the American hypochondriac market aware of a brand new ancient disease and medication they can make a profit upon before it hits that timeframe when they lose their monopoly on it and the market can sensibly go back to the generic.
By the way, the formulation of the damned pills did not change, I asked a friend of mine who works in the lab at Pfizer and she checked. Only thing that got changed was the same company I was getting my generic old school colchicine from made them cute little purple caplet looking pills.
And I still find it amusing that I can’t have an ounce of marijuana[which has never directly caused death through overdose], yet I can carry around a pill that can kill a person if they hork down more than 3 per 24 hour period for a few days … :rolleyes:
Thge first time I saw the Marines ad where the guy fights the fire beast I thought, “good luck getting someone to buy you a drink for doing that!”
Joining a class action suit is free. There’s really no downside other than having to fill out forms.
Indeed! And why do they have to virtually always have back-to-back repeats? And what’s up with “We *now *offer phone service for…” What the hell? They’ve *been *offering phone serves for $9 whatever per month.
My answers to the OP are two: the ads for ITT Tech, Lincoln Tech, the MMI Institute, DeVry, etc… all of these technical schools which claim to prepare so many people for good paying jobs.
Now, I have no doubt that people get jobs from these “schools”, but when the fine print tells you that credits are unlikely to transfer, and that having graduated from high school isn’t necessary to get into the school, I have to wonder about the quality of student, teacher, and materials.
Seems to me that you would have a very hard time not getting your piece of paper from these places. After all, a student who graduates is a student who pays the entire freight. I’m sure the business model wants to milk the maximum dollar amount from every student who walks in the door.
The second is the natural gas ads. These are usually targeted to certain areas of the country that have elections coming up, and they tell you the benefits of natural gas. These commercials would have you believe that natural gas is a way for the US to be energy independent; that it is a clean fuel and there is no danger to the environment to extract it; a huge creator of jobs which will help the local area financially, and on and on and on. What they don’t tell you is that there is a number of major concerns with the process of fracking, (which someone mentioned upthread). Before your local area gets suckered into permitting the research, drilling, extraction, and fracking of natural gas wells, I urge you to go to THIS WEBSITE and do some research. Josh Fox created a documentary about this subject called Gasland, and it is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in quite a while. Now, I would never be confused for a tree hugger… however, Fox does an excellent job of explaining what fracking is, the tremendous environmental damage that has been caused by it, and the extent by which this is a major money grab by the gas companies (which you would expect.) The commercials do a very good job at painting anyone against natural gas research, drilling, and production as a left-wing nutjob who needs something better to do with his/her time. After watching Gasland, I personally am against FRACKING (Read about it here), and would like to put a moratorium on drilling and extraction until a safer way is found. I guess it also depends on where you live, but unfortunately I live in an area that is rich in marcellus shale. I think if the spotted owl were endangered, it would cause a fuss, but when you are talking about the potential to contaminate the east coast water supply, we are only talking about people.
The kind of media blitz tells me one thing… there is money to be made by fracking and searching for natural gas… a LOT of money.
Now, on to other thoughts from the thread… 
I love the smell of urine under flourescents in the morning… it smells like…death is imminent.
**eHarmony **has always pissed me off, but their latest commercial, with that dickhead with the beard with his hand in his front pocket, being interviewed by the “voice offscreen” about what he’s looking for in a woman. Oh, and he has a date tonight with someone from eHarmony, so there’s a chance he won’t be doing the commercials any more.
That douche bag has been seen in that commercial for 6 months now. And he’s such an arrogant asshat, I can’t imagine any woman wanting to date him. He’s a hairy fuckin’ chimp, he looks so greasy he should be washed down with a fire hose, he sounds bored and almost incredulous that he has to be on a dating site in the first place (he’s such a catch). My favorite part? He’s so into looking for a girlfriend that one of the biggest requirements is “she must live close”. Way to sell it, Romeo. :rolleyes: He;s probably Neil Clark Warren’s love child.
Don’t know anything about either one of these, but I’ve often wondered if Angie’s List is worth paying for. Anyone know? Good or bad experiences?
My wife informed me that Jos. A. Banks used to have a great reputation and great clothes. Then, they filed for bankruptcy, and were bought out. Now, they try to live off the rep. they used to have.
What really fascinates me about these commercials is the amount of money that must be in the advertising budget. It also makes me wonder what a 30 second commercial costs to run?
Take Progressive, for example. I hate that weirdo Flo with the fire of a thousand suns. During the day, if you watch a channel like Spike, you can see a commercial for that insurance 3-4 times an hour. (I stayed home recently and Spike had a CSI marathon on, so I left the station on while drifting in and out of sleep). The commercials were CONSTANT. What does a commercial cost on some of these cable stations? Is there any way to find out?
At that, can you write it off on taxes as a business expense?
There’s probably not an easy way for the layman (i.e., not in advertising) to get that info. But, suffice to say that (a) Progressive has a very big advertising budget (we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars overall), and (b) running an ad during the day, on a lower-tier cable channel like Spike, on a rerun of a broadcast network TV show, is probably pretty inexpensive, relatively speaking.
The issue that you run into is that “media buys” often will simply put $X of their budget into a particular cable channel (and maybe a particular time of day); they may not be actively trying to be in every single commercial break during the day, but it can wind up that way. The net result is that, if you watch one cable channel for an extended period of time during the day, you often wind up seeing the same couple of ads over and over and over again.
“Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.” Those really confuse me. What’s the goal there? I mean, is the beef industry really in some sort of trouble that requires advertizing? Pretty sure I’m going to keep eating beef whether it’s advertized or not. Are they trying to get me to not eat chicken or pork later? Are they trying to convert vegetarians by showing 30 seconds of delicious meat?
Then they always say out loud that it’s paid for by the Beef Cousel or something, like it’s a political ad. Like I’m sitting there thinking “Hey…who paid for that beef ad?! It better be beef.org!”
It is pretty standard nowadays for people to say that they are cutting down on red meat - in other words beef. That is the trouble. Since these ads don’t advertise any particular product, they need attribution, thus the Beef Council tag.
Dane Cook. I had never heard of this guy until HBO began running about 5000 commercials a day for him a about three years ago.
Dane Cook. I’ve heard the name but have no idea who this guy is. Sounds like I’m fortunate.
This got me thinking about Stuff White People like and trendy things - like having a Nalgene bottle or wearing Tom’s.
I guess I can see that, but it’s not like the ads are touting the health benefits of eating it or anything. If you’re cutting down on red meat, are you going to change your mind after seeing an ad for it?
I could be wrong, but I suspect those kinds of ads are about selling stock. It reminds me of the old BASF ads “We don’t make (regular things), we make things that go into things to make them better”. I thought those were all about stock also.
It makes the meatpackers who are members feel they are getting their money’s worth, anyhow.
And there was the late unpleasntness between Oprah and some Texas cattle growers.
Thought of another one. A while back the radio airwaves were swamped with ads from one doctor about the evils of toenail fungus. The ad, IIRC, had two guys who had just played tennis or something in the locker room, where the point is made that if one of the guys fixed his toenail fungus (using the laser treatment) his love life might improve.
I always thought that if the guy was far enough along for her to see his naked toenails, his two incher might be a bigger (or smaller) problem.
absolutely. Advertising is a legitimate business expense. They can even write off Flo’s lipstick if they bought it. (Have I mentioned that I hate her? It’s an irrational hate, but my intestines feel like they tie in knots when I see her. I have a very negative reaction to her.)
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Do you have a ballpark? Let’s say for my example. Spike is a station targeted to 18-35 year old males (I’m guessing). They run the same ads all day, so the Progressive ad is followed by the weird dude in the 21st century insurance commercial, Then the ITT Tech ad, some spike programming advertising, and then lather, rinse and repeat. All day. For a 24 hour period, are we looking at $10K a spot, $5K? $1k? I really have no idea. And there are so many channels now with all sorts of commercial time to fill… It can’t be too much. I’ve seen local businesses advertise on the cable stations with my carrier, and they don’t seem like businesses that could afford a $5K spot 24 times a day.
Also, what happens if the station can’t sell it’s advertising slots for the day? Do the same 6 commercials get put in a loop?
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I’ve often wondered about the CSX and BASF ads also. Stock may be a motive, but there are so few people that would buy CSX stock at a volume to make it worthwhile. CSX stock is usually sitting in someone’s porfolio in a mutual fund in their 401K plan. I hope someone can answer this one, also.
For me, when I see a movie heavily promoted, it’s pretty much a guarantee I will think it sucks. If it’s advertised everywhere, there are interviews and specials, fast-food tie-ins and tv commercials around the clock, that pretty much clues me in that they really need people to go see this thing.