What's the Deal?

Deals just aren't what they used to be. Remember the days when a restaurant coupon was "Buy one dinner (and maybe 2 drinks) and get one free"? Like, say, last year? Now it's buy one, get one for $4.99, $5.99; something that isn't much of a deal at all. I'm not an economist, but I'm guessing that the driving factor behind these poor deals is the economy. They need to make money, too, and giving away free meals isn't going to do it. On the other hand, in such an economy, a person is less likely to take up the offer. Five bucks when it used to be free? No, thanks.
Now comes the worst deal I've stumbled across yet: Hometown Buffet charging for drinks. Sure, again they've got to make money, and this is a way to not raise the buffet price but still make money. Honestly, though, adding an Icee machine and a cappucinno machine to a formerly free beverage bar doesn't seem to justify the $1.79 (plus tax). Now you can blame me, we went there, we paid for the buffet and the beverage bar. On the other hand, I had a coupon the terms of which, incidentally, stipulated that one had to purchase the beverage bar to recieve the advertised price. What a deal.

Check and Recheck. . .

Rating: MS

I found this ad in the phonebook (the phone book was expired; don't worry), and I found it funny. Then I read it more closely. Um, here's a hint, folks, if you're going to talk about people reacting to "hey stupid," you might want to make sure your grammar is correct. By the way, slower is an adjective. It's modifying respond, which is a verb. Verbs are modifed by adverbs, therefore it should be more slowly.

Musico-Syncracies

Rating: NSS
The first time it happened was in college. I was visiting a friend's room and the TV was on but muted; music was playing on the sound system (I don't recall if it was radio, CD, or other). Then it happened--the television show went to commercial and the music playing happened to synchronize. The song and the commercial fit together quite well, and those of us in the room happened to notice. The one commercial ended and the next began, but the music still fit. The commercial was an airline commercial. As the song came to an end, a person in the commercial struck the cymbals dramatically above his/her head. We all laughed at how seamless the picture and music had been.
This incident has happened again more than once. It's been in mostly restaurants where there are televisions on and background music. It hasn't been as dramatic as that day in the dorms, until today.
I was in a restaurant today when a Diet Coke commerical came on. The music fit so unbelievably well that if I hadn't known in advance that it was background music, I would not have known it was not the music for the commerical.
It has me wondering: is this merely a coincidence when it happens, or is it that there is something about pop culture that makes visual/auditory fit together well, or is it that we have been conditioned by the media culture where our mind automatically makes the connection for us? It is just something that makes me go hmmm. . .

Huh?

Rating: NSS
I've heard the commercial twice now. It for a Brides Against Breast Cancer gown sale.
I think this is a nice idea. I just have one question about their commercial--at the end it says, "Help make a memory come true." Huh? A memory is remembering something that happened. How can it come true? It's a pretty-sounding platitude that takes ad jargon and organizes it in a way that makes a sentence.
This is the way advertising works. Who else caught that statement? Maybe we need to pay more attention to ads. Take the Sound Room universal remote commercial. The poor guy with multiple remotes has an utterly messy room. The guy with the universal remote has a tidy room. Hm. How it pulls us in when we're not paying attention. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the Brides' gown sale or don't shop at the Sound Room. I'm saying that we need to think a little more about the sights and sounds aimed at us, getting us to buy.

Sell Me Something

Rating: MS
One billboard and two TV ads have caught my eye. The first is a billboard for the BMW Championship at Bellrive Country Club. The original billboard had a picture of Tiger Woods and said that all the big players will be there. Recently the billboard changed. The wording is still the same, but the picture has changed. Instead of Tiger, there are two pictures of some golfers that golf fans would know, but I do not. This change amused me, as we all know Tiger Woods is out for the remainder of the season.
The two TV ads I found equally as interesting. The first is a car ad which begins by showing an action-type movie scene where the men are shooting at each other with water guns and tossing water balloons instead of real guns and grenades. Then it switches to a car and the announcer says, what if we could replace something dangerous with water? It then goes on to promote the vehicle which emits water instead of greenhouse gasses. It got me to thinking that if a person compared the two concepts, it would look like this: Guns are dangerous, so replace them with water. Greenhouse gasses are dangerous, so replace them with water. Would this not mean that greenhouse gasses are as equally dangerous as guns? Hmm.
The second ad showed a large semi with smooshed aluminum cans spilling out the back end. A worker (he's not a real worker, he just plays one on TV) in a hard hat explains how Budweiser recyles more aluminum cans than they produce through their beer sales. I believe he said for every 4 they produce, they recycle 5. After this comment he holds up a can of Budweiser and says that the lucky ones get to re-live the dream. Clearly implying that every aluminum can's dream is to hold Budweiser's beer. This ad I find amusing in light of the InBev buyout of AB. Let's show how wonderful AB is for 1)recycling more than they manufacture 2)making the greatest beer to put in the lucky recycled can. Maybe we'll feel better now about the sale.