Advertising reaches a new low

They have the Monaco Grand Prix playing here in the bar, and I’m mostly able to ignore it, but something just caught my eye I had to mention. One of the cars had a flat tire, so they switched to a camera on the car facing directly backwards so we could watch the smoke trailing behind as the car sped around the track toward the pits.

“Star Wars” the rear wing of the car proclaimed. (You may not have heard – there’s a new Star Wars movie out.) I thought to myself “those guys lucked out. They’re getting bonus exposure for their advertisement and their car’s still in the race.” The car pulled into the pits where the crew was waiting. They put on a new tire, topped off the gas, and the car was back out on the road. A textbook pit stop.

The crew members were all dressed as Imperial Storm Troopers.

35 thoughts on “Advertising reaches a new low

  1. One of the more interesting places I’ve seen advertising is inside the bottom of a coffee mug — I can’t remember what the product was, but I seem to recall that it was something one might eat while drinking coffee, such as a breakfast cereal.

    I could imagine the bottom of a beer glass might be a particluarly effective location, since the beer drinker’s inhibitions are likely to be impaired, making him or her more likely to take up the suggestion of the advertising.

    Oh Czech Air, I noticed that all of the seats are the same, even at the front of the plane, and that disposable anitmacassars are used to designate which seats are first-class and which are tourist. I imagine this gives the airline the ability to adjust the number of first-class seats according to demand. On the back of the antimacassars (at least those used for tourist class) are advertisements for Skoda automobiles. It would be interesting to think of what products might be particularly appropriate (or humorous) to see advertised on the backs of airplane seats. (Casualty insurance? Firearms?)

  2. Not that I want to stear this riveting discourse off couse, but did Fuck Master G Spot disappear all of a sudden? He seemed so…vocal…just a few daze ago…

  3. Jerk McSwede, aka “Ray of Sunshine” kills me. I think I will nominate him as my UN Diplomat.

    “perviosition” is a great word, I think I will nominate lew as Education secretary.

    I still need positions for elder statesmen pL, John H., Mr7k, and Brian.

    Cause you know, ex-MOHs are could for projecting our image abroad. Maybe I should send them on a fact finding junket to China to check on bird flu.

  4. You raise a good point (without meaning to) – there is no archive of perviosition. Who will remember the pervious?

    Someone suggested beatification for Mr7k, but what of the rest?

  5. You know, I’ve seen a lower low than this, now that you mention it, CA. A few years ago I was in a Big-Ass American Department Store (BAADS) and I saw a product that really disturbed me.

    Baby bottles with the pepsi logo. Who knows if it really works, but creating an association between what must be one of the happiest moments of life and Pepsi before the poor tyke can even speak strikes me as diabolical.

  6. Santo subito for all pervious MOHs!

    Even John.

    Perhaps you could carve out a section of MR&HBI to contain the list. Nothing fancy, mind you. Just call it something like “The Hall of MOH Saints.”

  7. Pediatricians are already outraged that children often drink soft drinks when they should be drinking something more healthful. And they also warn that, once teeth begin to erupt, babies shouldn’t be drinking anything but water in their bedtime bottles, because even fruit juices and milk contain sugars that will cause tooth decay overnight.

    Looks like PepsiCo is working hard to undermine the health of our children in yet more imaginative ways. Just fill that kid’s bottle with Pepsi, and get him addicted to the caffeine and high-fructose corn syrup at an early age. Sure, he’ll be obese and toothless by the time he gest to kindergarten, but who cares?

  8. Mah maw always be putting jack and coke into mah bottle.

    /CA, don’t fight it, put yer nuts into pepsico or coke. SqJo wanna be a rich rodent.

    //at many of the taco shops in SD, you can buy bottles of mexican cokes and pepsis; they are made with pure cane sugar. There is a taste difference.

  9. Every day before I drive him to middle school (another change from our childhood: children don’t walk to school any more), Brad grabs a couple of packaged water bottles from the Costco slat in the garage, and throws away his empties from his backpack from the day before. I am often sorely tempted to tell him to just go refill his empties from the filtered water at the refrigerator spigot. It irks me to no end that we now pay more bottled water (something available for essentially free from a faucet) than for gasoline. But I consider the alternative of him taking or buying soda instead of water, and I say nothing.

    Except of course, “Hurry up. Why haven’t you done that before? Recycle bin, not trash can! I’m going to be late.” and all the other little ways a father says I Love You to his son.

  10. I used to have a colleague who grew up in several, small Texas towns (her father was an itinerant highschool basketball coach). Most of these little towns had no flouridation in the water supply. Her teeth were a mess. How much flouride does bottled water have?

  11. I don’t think bottled water has any flouride — there are still folks out there (the battle currently simmers in Watsonville, CA) who believe that flouride will pollute their precious bodily fluids. A water-bottler wouldn’t want to alienate potential customers.

    My father’s farm is on a country coop water system that provides excellent, naturally-flouridated water. The flouride concentration is a little too high, in fact, so the farm kids who grew up drinking Fort Bent water had brownish/yellowish flouride stains in their excellent enamel.

  12. Addressing comments in order:

    Yes, SJ, the soft drinks from Mexico still have the cane sugar rather than the cheaper high-fructose corn syrup, and yes, it does indeed taste better. So here in Albuquerque, many of the Mexican markets get the Mexican soft drinks that have the real sugar. It’s not just an issue of taste, either: Some people with sensitive digestive systems have problems with fructose.

    Meanwhile, Keith, I have to agree with you that bottled water is not superior to tap water, and, as you mentioned, it often lacks important minerals, such as fluoride, that tap water can generally be counted on to have. But it’s way better for a kid to opt for a shortage of minerals than for a massive surplus of sugars.

    Jess, as your colleague has learned the hard way, having flouride in drinking water does make a difference in dental health. Back in the 1950s and ’60s, there were a whole lot of people who opposed putting flouride into public water supplies, because it might be some fiendish communist plot. Instead, it has been a public-health triumph, along with iodized salt and iron-enriched flour.

    Interesting note on the debate about junk foods in public schools: Cleveland Middle School here in Albuquerque got rid of junk foods and soft drinks in its vending machines a year ago. The machines remained, but they dispensed only healthful snacks and water or juice drinks. Following this action, discipline problems dropped by 40%, while vending-machine revenue remained the same.

    Talk about a win-win situation — the vending companies don’t lose any revenue, but the school gets better behaved students.

  13. As far as what minerals can be found in bottled water, it all really depends on which faucet the guy bottles his water from. There is very little regulation on bottled water and its labeling, so the pastoral spring pictured on the front could really be Jimmy and his hose.

    Some interesting Fluoride Info for you. Ever wonder why your toothpaste has the number for the Poison Control center on the back?

    I think statues are in order, but a list would be nice as well. Or, perhaps a pervious council should be formed to ratify some of these wild appointments F-G-F is making…

  14. Keith, I read in the Sierra club mag that it’s not adviseable (sic) to refill the single serve bottles. Something about reactions to the plastic blah blah. But I’d be more worried about bacteria from not washing the bottle between uses.

    Also about the driving kids to school, I recently read that the school bike rack is a thing of the past. That makes me sad.

  15. San Diego is the only major metro area in the US that does not flouridate, and apparently the difference in dental health is significant.

  16. Group Captain Hensley,

    I drink only pure grain alcohol and rain water.

    Have you ever seen a Russki drink water? What do they drink? They don’t drink anything other than vodka, right?

    Purity of essence.

  17. I’ve had some purity of essence! Zwack! The Bomb! Holey Shit, not even the Ruskies’ll drink that shit. Freedom in a bottle…the Zwack Bomb!

  18. Alas, nowadays, even when kids live close enough to the school to walk or bike, it’s not safe. It’s not just television or laziness that’s turning our kids into couch potatoes — it’s the fear that some sicko might be out there, going after our kids. Much safer to drive them to school in the fortress of our SUV, and when they get home after school, they should lock the door and play video games. Neighborhood pickup ball games are much too dangerous.

  19. And in fact in most neighborhoods it’s safer than ever for kids to walk. It’s just so sensationalized when something bad does happen that it seems more common.

  20. True for the most part. Media coverage of events does tend to blow them out of proportion. However, when a 6th-grader from a middle school gets beat up by other students while walking home from school, and that student’s offense was being smarter, smaller, and ethnically different, and that student dies from his injuries, that’s cause for worry. That particular incident happened the year before Gerald entered that school. He was smarter, smaller, and ethnically different.

    Still, I will say that I believe the majority of parents are indeed being overly protective or paranoid. And the media definitely do reinforce that tendency.

  21. I am hereby appointing all pervious MOHs to be school bus drivers. I feel the pervious should be around children.

  22. Nyah, nyah, nyah — ya can’t touch me!

    There ain’t no school buses hereabouts. Just traffic jams of SUVs around all the schools at 8:00 am and 3:00 pm.

  23. As the only person on earth who can never be pervious, I’d like to know what it’s like.

    Especially from lew.

  24. As my term counts down, I hold out hope for an eggfryer at 17011. But in my final days, I have two options: 1) I can foment a military coup and become the Imperor Impervious, or 2) I can tell a long winded joke.

    Which shall it be?

  25. While the soon-to-be-pervious F-G-F makes up his mind, I’ll tell a short joke. (No, not that kind of short joke.) As is often the case, I may be the only one who finds it amusing, but here goes.

    Three guys walk into a bar. You’d think at least one of them would have seen it.

  26. No, they were staggering off the seriously delayed flight from Charles de Gaulle to Houston Intergalactic, and they were definitely in no condition to see where they were going.

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