I saw some yarn lying on the floor today. It was a lovely, deep, plum purple colour. I picked it up, intrigued. I saw the top of a huge picture of a woman on the label, and I turned the yarn around so I could see all of her – I was wondering what the yarn looked like knit. But the woman wasn’t wearing a hat or a scarf or a poncho made from the lovely purple yarn – no, she was wearing a heavily beaded earing and a pearl-coated tank-top. I was confused. Whats the point of putting a random woman on a yarn label?
Curly silver letters were on the label, too. “Vanna White.” Hm. Perhaps she’s a famous knitter or something. Oh wait…Vanna…isn’t she that person on Jepordy or Wheel of Fortune or something?
More curly letters – far bigger than the last. “Vanna’s Choice.”
The white-toothed, two-tone haired woman who looked younger than she should stared back at me, her sparkling earing flashing. The words above her head said “The yarn for all your projexts. I know you’ll love it as much as I do.”
I don’t think the yarn company’s using Vanna’s face to sell their product - I think they’re trying to scare you into buying it…like threatening a child: “If you don’t buy this yarn…Vanna will eat you!”
1. Why do we do fine when people aren’t looking, but if we ask them to watch, we mess up?
2. Do things taste differently for different people – and if we tasted what they taste, then we would like it, too, or are our taste buds different?
3. Why do we have favourite colours? Why do you think whoever thought of it thought of it? When do you think he/she thought of it?
4. When is a child accountable for his or her sins?
5. Is your first memory real, or a dream? Has your first memory always been the same?
6. What if you had all the money in the world? What would you do with it? How long would you have all the money in the world…because if you bought anything, someone else would have money, too. Would your supply of money be endless because you would have money printed for you personally? Do you think it would really be possible to have all the money in the world, or would people be dishonest and steal the money you printed or print their own? Do you think you’d ever find out that you weren’t the only person with money?
7. If you close your eyes, is it harder to smell, hear and taste? If you listen to loud music that drowns everything out is it harder to concentrate on something or smell or taste something? Is that in your head or real?
8. Why do you believe what you believe? Are there any holes/uncertainties in your beliefs?
9. How do you know that something you’ve been doing all your life isn’t wrong?
10. When foreign people write poems, do they rhyme in English, the sounds of the language, or the words of the language?
Filed under: Books
Meg stared at him crossly, as if she felt all her warning were wasted. “I can read what’s proper and needful, young man! But no more than that. F’rinstance, I’d never read a book!”
“But what about Miss Mansfield?”
Meg shut her eyes in vexation.
“Yes! You look at the mistress. All trouble and worry and storms in the heart! And then you look at the master who can neither read nor write on accont of his disability 0 which is, maybe, a blessing in disguise. All smile and even-faces. All contentment, I’d say. There, now!” Surprised by her own powers of observation, she opened her eyes triumphantly. “So who’s the better off? Brains? Give you a farthing for ‘em!”
– Smith, by Leon Garfield
Can you see the problem here? Meg is trying to prove her point to Smith, the boy she’s talking to, by telling him that one thing was caused by another – that her mistress is unhappy because she can read and her master is happy because he’s blind and can’t read. This tactic can be very convincing. Just because one thing can before another thing doesn’t mean that it was caused by that thing.
If your grandmother had osteoporosis, you could, too. Fight back with Actonel. Your grandmothere’s hump wasn’t a slump. IT was osteoporosis. Over time, with osteoporosis, multiple fractures of the spine can cause the bac to curve, but in severe cases, form a hump. Some risk factors for osteoporosis include Caucasian or Aisan race, family history, small frame or smoking.
“My grandma had osteoporosis” you think. “I’m Caucasian…and I smoked a while ago and have a small frame! I have osteoporosis! Oh no!”
Don’t get scared by ads – I know it’s pretty easy to get sucked into the realm of “what if’s” and “I must have’s”, but it’s a tried and true tactic in the advertising world: fear. We’re always worried when we get a funny pain in our stomach – it might be cancer! The next moment, we see an ad that lists the symptoms of stomach cancer and it says “funny pain in stomach is one of the greatest signs of stomach cancer,” and we flip. It’s a good and frequent tactic used in the advertising world, so be alert.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’ll keep running because it lets me be selfish. It’s the thing I do that’s just for me, and nobody else. FYI, I never thought this being-selfish-thing could take so much discipline.
“Cool! She’s doing something for herself! I don’t do that often enough…I should do something for myself once in a while! And if those shoes help me out, then I’ll buy them!”
Wait! Stop! Calm down! Look at the key word, there: selfish. They don’t even try to hide the word behind cleverly manipulated text! They state it right there: selfish.
Here are two more:
A picture of a woman holding a brief case with a purple sign on it. The sign says “I did it for ME.” Everybody has their own reason for looking into BOTOX Cosmetic. If you haven’t called your doctor yet, isn’t it about time?
An inflated picture of a huge, juicy burger, ketchup and mustard oozing perfectly, crisp, green, wavy tips of lettuce poke out from between a dewey tomato and a drip of warm, melting, golden-yellow cheese. The caption reads: Wildly tantalizing, yet totally virtuous. JUST LIKE YOU.
Our society is too easily manipulated by the idea of being selfish and doing something for yourself. You deserve this, you can do that because you’re so selfless the rest of the time…do a little something for yourself sometimes! There isn’t anything wrong with the occaisional thing here or there for yourself, but when you’re overwhelmed by three plus ads in one magazine and billboards and commercials between shows and you begin to get overwhelmed…
It’s been said that the Volkswagen Passat has the lowest ego emissions of any German-engineered sedan. Which is nice. Because you get features like those found in high-ego German sedans, but without all those nasty ego emissions. So we’re not about to ruin our low-ego rating with an ad full of boastful, “high-ego” language. We’ll just stick to the facts.
“Great!” you think, “It’s about time some ad did that…”
We submit for evidence our 280HP 3.6L narrow-angle engine.
“Um. What’s a…never mind, I’ll keep reading these..facts..”
A transverse-mounted V-6 that can go tire to tire with just about any of our country counterparts.
You get the pun. “Tire to tire…that’s funny. Transverse-mounted wha….?”
This ad broke down your guard by telling you that they’ll be sincere, but they didn’t tell you they’d explain what the facts meant. We think “that sounds pretty high-tech” and we’re dazzled into considering the car when only a car mechanic would know what those terms mean. They could mean nothing! The car company could be telling us that there’s a narrow-angle engine (which is in every car) and a particularly stable review mirror with a magnification of 6. Don’t get dazzled by fancy terms.
Filed under: Updates/Announcements
Those of you who have stumbled upon my site (by various methods) and spread the word…
Thank you!
I appreciate it much!
“I think my hair deserves to go beyond one-tone colour.”
Woo. Good for you.
Three pictures of women with spotless faces, creamy skin, shining smiles and silky, smooth, liquid-like, illustrious two-toned hair that’s flowing in the wind.
I’m special. And if I buy this product, I’ll look like these women.
Have you ever wondered about that? You see a picture of a woman with clear, moisteurized skin and below her is a chart of comparisons and “clinically-proven,” “studies show” and “doctors reccomend” comments. You automatically think that if you buy the product and use it you’ll look like the woman in the picture. Have you ever thought that there might be no connection?
There really isn’t. The advertisers are using these pictures to illustrate their product, not prove it. The woman in the picture was picked out of hundreds of women for her nearly-flawless skin and dazzling smile, and even after that she was rendered in a image-manipulating program to make sure all blemishes were gone and her skin looked the way the advertisers wanted it to. This isn’t the way you’ll look if you use their product. It’s the way they want to you to think you’ll look, and it works.
My name: Ellen DeGeneres
Childhood ambition: To work with animals
Fondest memory: I can’t recall, but I’m sure I’m found of it.
Soundtrack: music.
Retreat: nature.
Wildest dream: to sleep more and dream
Indulgence: doing nothing
Last purchase: butter
My card: is American Express
“Wow…that’s cool. She uses that card? Well, I won’t be tricked into making American Express my card just because it’s Ellen DeGeneres’s card…….but…she sounds so much like a “normal person,” not some high and mighty movie star…perhaps American Express is the card for me…”
I’m a Stripper.
“Woah,” you think. “She’s what?”
I’m a Stripper, and I sleep just fine at night. Actually, it was my mom’s idea. She said she found the whole experience very freeing.
“Um…wow. I don’t think I really needed to know that…” And then you read the next sentence:
See, as an allergy sufferer, I used to think nasal congestion – and sleepless nights – were just a way of life. Then one day, Mom brought over some Breathe Right nasal stips. Naturally, I thought she was crazy, but I put one on before bed, and my life has never been the same. It immediately opened my nose, and just like that, I could breathe all night long! Now I wear one to breathe better every night. Maybe you should be a stipper, too.
“Oh.”
The tactic worked – you were shocked into reading more. When I saw those first two sentences I certainly kept reading. I was curious.
But I’m disgusted, really. Using a grotesque tactic that catches our attention by shocking us and then tricks us into reading their ad isn’t that healthy.
