I don't feel "Manly" anymore

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Dec 13 2006, 03:11 PM) [snapback]361851[/snapback]</div>

One of my neighbors put a set of those trailer-hitch-gone-horribly-wrong decorations on the bumper of his already-hard-to-ignore bright yellow giant pickup truck. I really disliked walking past it in the parking lot every morning. It's a good thing he moved away a month or two later, because it annoyed me enough that I was considering sneaking out there and painting them blue.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cbs4 @ Dec 14 2006, 02:21 PM) [snapback]362318[/snapback]</div>

My wife tells me that, in a Washington Post article yesterday, they described potential FTC regulation that might require companies doing paid word-of-mouth advertiing on a face-to-face basis to disclose the source of payment. Seems the test cases was a manufacturer of a cell phone camera, who paid people to pose as tourists, who would then ask other (presumably real) tourists to take their picture with the cell phone camera, then used the opportunity to gush about how wonderful the product was.

Now, it would never occur to me that someone who asked me to take their picture, then talked about how much they liked their camera, would be anything but, well, a person who genuiinely liked their camera. Which is, in the modern world of avertising, an absolutely ideal situation, from the advertiser's perspective. And, if markets do one thing well, they do not let profit opportunities go unexploited.

So, in the case of the fake tourist, I guess I was not sufficiently paranoid.

The bottom line is that advertising has moved very strongly in this direction in recent years. Google "adverblogging" and read what's said. This is a thriving if somewhat shadowy industry, and is completely of a piece with other trends toward paid disinformation. Can't you recall several journalists in the last couiple of years who were called on the carpet when it was discovered that they were being paid to write the stories that their sponsors wanted? And that US TV stations were playing US-government created propaganda peices disguised as new stories? As more people move to the web for information, that information channel offers greater opportunity for passing desiired information and disinformation. So, what, they'll pay an editorial writer, but they won't pay a blogger? I don't think that makes sense.

These approaches are used because they are effective. And sometimes, cheap and profitable. They result, in part, from a population that's so saturated by electronic media and traditional advertising approaches that planted messages that are not perceived as advertising work as the most efficient form of advertising.

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me.

 

Chogan, I was thinking the exact same thing while I was reading your post, drinking a nice, refreshing Coca-Cola. Nothing makes reading PC that a cool bottle of Coke - it's the real thing!

Seriously, if some stranger whose picture I just took started gushing about all the features on their mobile phone/camera, I'd just start laughing because you'd have to be an Oscar-worthy actor to not sound like a come across as a total nimrod.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Dec 13 2006, 04:11 PM) [snapback]361851[/snapback]</div>

I put that suggestion up there as a joke, since I figured this whole thread had to be either a too-subtle joke or a too-obvious troll... I've seen one or two trucks with those running around here, and it is about the tackiest thing ever. What's the old line, no one ever went broke underestimating the American public?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Miz @ Dec 11 2006, 10:28 AM) [snapback]360346[/snapback]</div>

i sincerely hope youre joking cause that just sounds 'chauvinistically' MESSED UP. :huh:

p.s. whats up with the stigma attached to ppl who show interest in our enviornment? there's nothing wrong with giving a damn about the quality of air you and everyones mom is breathing if you care at ALL about your health and not mention everyone else's... i'd hate to think that "manly" = "naive and destructive"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(chogan @ Dec 13 2006, 01:11 PM) [snapback]361851[/snapback]</div>

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
--P.T. Barnum

"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."
-- H.L. Mencken

Look at it this way - it serves as an easily visible indicator of stupidity. Much quicker and less annoying than waiting for the owner to open their mouth.