Thursday, January 21, 2010

Who falls for this stuff?

I'm 45, male, and live in Missouri.  And facebook knows this.  So I'm looking at these two ads that showed up (at the same time) on my facebook page.

If I were a 44 year old female and lived in Indiana, the ad would read “Indiana residents: If you’re 44 and female, you can qualify for $250 in free gas with participation. Time running out.”


I know, makes it sound more exclusive. “I’m SPECIAL.”

Heh. Yeah. I’m also cynical.

Also gotta love the PYT on the Free Gas ad.  She's obviously not 45 or male.  But they know what will catch the eye of a 45 year old male, don't they?

As to the Time running out bit, there's this article:
 
 
First of all, what excatly does that mean?  Just tell everybody they're covered but don't bother with little details like how?  Just mandate it.  You know, like extracting sunshine from cucumbers?
 
Secondly, it does seem to smack of  "USED CAR SALE!!!! BUY NOW!!!! NOW, NOW, NOW!!!!  DON'T think WAIT!!!!  TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!!!"
 
I wish I could find an old Peanuts cartoon I remember where Linus was sitting on a stool in front of a TV, and the TV said
 
We'll be back after these messages.
 
And the next frame is practically filled with the words from the TV,
 
USED CAR SALE!!!!!   YES!!!!!   YOU'VE HEARD RIGHT!!!!! THERE'S NEVER BEEN SUCH A SALE!!! ...
 
and Linus being bowled off the stool.  The rest of the strip was him struggling against the "wind" of the blaring commercial, trying to get back to his seat.
 
The last frame, he's simply saying
 
Help!

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