The Blogs intro page can be found here.

Blog specifics on this page:-

"Being Offended"
"Hollywood"
"TV Bargains Ads"
"Repetitive Adverts"
"Tear Jerker Ads"

October 6th, 2017. "Being Offended"

Let's start our blog with this particular matter that really gets me going. The "PC" world we seem to live in these days has gone way beyond anything remotely sensible and acceptable - it seems to be "PC everything". In particular however is the subject of things that cause offense whereby seemingly the smallest and trivial thing is the target of massive and sometimes quite pathetic over reaction.

The first of many examples that come to mind is what we see in some schools, and particulary colleges - a ''poor'' student who takes offense at something sensible people would regard as trivial or even totally unimportant - becomes the subject of a "micro aggression" ! Oh dear - poor thing. Maybe they have to retreat to the bathroom and have a good cry! What might be 'trivial' anyways? Maybe something as mundain as being told their clothes looked good, or their shoes were nice - yes, that is how ridiculous it can sometimes be.

Then, outside of the educational system, we can see similar but here very often it is the true adults who are professing to be offended by simply not liking what someone says - someone just implementing their First Amendment right. Try this one - folks attend a barbeque and before food is eaten the home owner wants to say a prayer. Oh my gosh - that's terrible, because the offendee might be an atheist and take great offense, and even make a fuss. As we might say "grow a pair" and be polite and suck it up. I am not religious but respect those who are (mostly!) and in such circumstances will accept politely and remain the probable minority that I am.

This actually leads on to another aspect - that of the "Minority Offense Club". If in a group I represent a mere 1% or 2% then I hardly feel entitled, even if mildly offended (too strong a word actually - "not comfortable with" is better), to make a huge fuss and expect the majority to change just because of me. What about the folks who claim offense from some statues and perhaps even a 10 commandments tablet etc. Are they majority? Hardy ever (minority of 1% perhaps) and yet they expect that because they take offense that everyone else (majority of 99%) should change to suit, and remove ''offending'' items. Some even file law suits!

This is already way too long but - maybe you get my drift. Let's all learn to be offended if really necessary but, not imposing on others with our complaints and infantile wining.

October 15th, 2017. "Hollywood"

Much as I enjoy good movies, got to say the whole Hollywood thing has become worse and worse with regard to various celebrity attitudes. For a start, the top people, actors, producers, directors etc, seem to be for the most part far left if not progressives. They seem so often to be out of touch with the real world and living in a near fantasy land, except perhaps for a few Conservatives like John Voigt and Mark Walburgh to name just two - and there aren't many of them!

Self congratulatory appears to be one description - just watch awards ceremonies and you'll see a good example of that - it's a closed shop. They also tend to close ranks when it comes to some of the bad things like the ''casting couch'', choosing to look the other way - just think of the recent scandle with Harvey Weinstein - it's taken near decades for that predator to fall off his perch. Just perhaps it will start a trend!

One other major thing that chaps my hide is the attitude of so many to guns. We have the likes of Liam Neeson, Tom Hanks and plenty of others who take part in almost gratuitous gun movies and yet claim to be anti gun. If they feel so strongly about it then stop being hypocritical and do not take on violent movies full of guns and violence. Of course, that sells, and the almighty Dollar reigns supreme as motivation. Furthermore of course in many cases, these rich people can afford to have armed protection and yet can't accept the right of good law abiding citizens to be armed and so able to be in a position to defend themselves.

OK. That will do for now but being as I am just one of millions of 'peons', it seems the "we are better than you" syndrome will carry on as usual.

October 15th, 2017. "TV Bargains Ads"

This is a quicky. I keep noticing more and more the same old approach with "As Shown on TV" items, whereby firstly a product is lauded and priced often at the magic $19.95... and then comes, "but wait" -- "We'll double your offer, just pay an extra fee". Notice how less and less they say "just pay extra S&H. Makes me wonder what that extra fee is. The big butt chap though is -- what if I only wanted to buy just one instead of having two and maybe save near half the original price - of course shipping may be well be heavy but - I don't want two!

Oh and - on the subject of ads -- more and more there seem to be phaceutical ads, initially espousing the wonderful benefits of a drug, only to then (by law) listing a bunch of warnings, contra-indications and side effects - and even risk of death!! Great! Sometimes it seems, the cure (palliative?) is worse than the disease! Many of those ads run one minute or even more -- consider the cost of advertising and then think how that has to be absorbed into the product cost - yes, we pay.

October 23rd, 2017. "Repetitive Adverts"

I don't watch a huge lot of TV - just occasionally during the day and maybe a couple of hours in the evening. Of course, probably like most people, commercials break up programs and get a bit tiresome but - here's the rub -- seeing the same ad over and over! How many ad breaks in an hour of programing? Probably six. To then have to endure the same add almost the same number of times gets irritating, and this can be day after day.

Right now typical examples are - Stella Beer, Liberty Mutual, Nutra System, and also not long ago "My Pillow" - and there are others. Now, as I have discussed before I think, it must cost the advertiser near millions, or at least multiple thousands - and how can they pay for this? Seems reasonable to assume they add cost to their product to cover that, and we pay. My reaction to the excessive ads is simple - it puts me right off a product and makes me want to refuse to even consider purchasing. In other words, ads that are for me totally counter productive. Maybe it's just this old man getting cranky!

December 24th, 2017. "Tear-Jerker Adverts"

OK, it's ads again! This time it's concerning the lead up to Christmas and all the saturation of "tear-jerker" ads, which include animal rescue type, charity hospitals, and wounded warrior etc. Now don't get me wrong, I support all these noble organizations in principle and if I had that rare benefit of plenty of spare cash I'd basically consider supporting them. However, and here is the rub for me -- not only do they fill the air time including prime time but, how can they afford the expense?. Typically they might ask for you to sign up and donate $19 per month.

So, where does this money go? Well for starters I guess it has to pay for all the ads which can hardly be cheap, even allowing for special rates - and there are production costs to factor in as well. Then we have the 'free' gift offers - maybe a T-shirt or special blanket - these cost money too. Add to that the admin people who will receive some sort of salary and we might ask "how much is left?". In my humble opinion, a large slice of money has already gone which is not available for the prime cause - leaving perhaps a mere few cents on the Dollar to do the real good. This may sound very cynical but hey - that's my take!

Finally - here's a suggestion for all these organizations and even other advertisers too - broadcast a full ad (which could be a minute or much more), but, then use real short ads several times as reminders before the next airing of a full one... enough to keep the subject front and center but at a huge saving. What do I know - I'm just the Joe Public consumer but sure as heck I can think of better ways to generate funds that will actually go the cause more efficiently. Rant over for now!

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