Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 21, 2012
advertising saturation (Photo credit: Will Lion)
No idea where this saying originated but it fits the bill another saying I’ve no idea its origin either. We use these kind of sayings all the time, so much so we hardly think about it. I digress. I am tired of receiving often automated calls over the phone about the PPI’s I don’t actually have and how I can claim the payments back with the help of the caller of course. The callers being firms of solicitors who are paid either through the courts or by a percentage of what they can claw back for you if you allow them to proceed. All very well but I do not have a PPI and have never been sold one by any bank or organisation. They do not know that of course but they are fishing for business and that is what annoys me the most. Another area is one in which I am told that the caller has been trying to contact me for weeks usually getting that message through a text and informing me that I have an outstanding claim for a motoring accident. I am even told how much I am entitled to which is over £3000. This is because my van (I wasn’t in it at the time) was involved in an accident caused by someone driving their vehicle into it and thereby wrecking it beyond repair. That accident happened more than four years ago and has long since been settled!
If I want work I place an advert and wait for replies. I do not telephone people and pester them for work. If I need any service I will ask for it. If I wish to change my service provider I will make the call. I am constantly bombarded with advertising leaflets crammed inside of the local free newspapers that I get every week. Why can’t they place their adverts with the newspaper rather than cluttering my letterbox with heaps of paper which only goes directly into the recycle bin. I should be able to read the advert printed in the newspaper if I wish to. Cold-calling door-to-door is slowly becoming illegal but more needs to be done to block unwanted literature and cold-call telephone calls as far as I am concerned. The words written in the picture above say it all for me.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising | Tagged: Advertising, Business, Free daily newspaper | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on November 30, 2011
Despite it being very windy, occasionally raining and unusually warm, it isn’t the weather I dislike. In fact I love Autumn, No, it is the approach to Christmas. I hate the advertising on television which promotes and encourages unnecessary spending. Assumptions are made that everyone is looking forward to the day and accordingly promotes good times using carefully selected music and filming. Many people will be feeling left out of things because they are poor or have no family to share the time with, maybe some will be living alone. Whilst I do not agree now with holding Christmas festivities when once I did, I do realise that I am in the minority. I have written about this on several occasions here in the past year or thereabouts so I won’t re-iterate again. Christmas isn’t about the birth of a saviour anymore, it has become a hedonistic and lavish experience for most people. People will say that Christmas is for children and they want to make sure that their children enjoy the now ‘magical’ time with plenty of presents and good food. That wasn’t the original reason for celebrating Christmas. The real reason for celebrating Christmas although believed to be sincere is probably debatable in light of what Scripture dictates but nevertheless even that is ignored in favour of the modern empty version. The atmosphere surrounding the approach to the day is full of hype and is all commercially generated. It is all so false and without meaning. Is it any wonder that people do not believe in the true message that Christmas was supposed to convey? They want the tinsel, the bright lights, the food and drink, the ‘good times’, the short-lived season of ‘goodwill to all men’ and then return to their hum-drum lives the following week where none of the ‘goodwill’ goes with them. I see signs in the back windows of cars which read, ‘A dog is not just for Christmas, it is for life’, in an attempt to curb the practice of dumping the animal at the RSPCA once the novelty has worn off. Well ‘Jesus isn’t just for Christmas’ either but how many even consider that, or even believe it?
Shirley Anne
- Screw the holidays! (blogsbyaloser.wordpress.com)
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Posted in Advertising, Celebration, God, Jesus, Life, Lifestyle, Religion | Tagged: Calendar, Christianity, Christmas, Decorations and Props, Holiday, Literature, Opinions, Religion and Spirituality | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 26, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
I am constantly reminded through television advertisements that ‘everybody’ is talking about this or that, ‘everybody’ is after one of these or ‘everybody’ likes this or that. What twaddle! ‘Everybody’ isn’t doing all of those things at all. It galls me when these things are glibly taken as being the truth when in fact most of it isn’t. Obviously a sales gimmick for the blind. I take no notice, that is I am not influenced by such advertising strategy. I can see the psychology behind it all. What infuriates me is that those doing the advertising think everybody is a fool. This week we shall have the ‘Royal Wedding‘. I know this because of the relentless advertising of the event, especially by the BBC who seem to revel in all the pomp and ceremony. A recent advertisement proclaims that ‘all the world’ is interested. How can they make such a claim when the opposite is probably true? There are something like 6,775,235,700 (2009 estimation) people living in the world and probably only one sixth of those will take an interest. To be honest I don’t take an interest but if others like the idea, well and good but just don’t try pushing it in my face. It is after all simply a wedding so why make a song and dance about it? I call it idolatry, a bit like holding so-called ‘celebrities’ in awe and having an unhealthy interest in what they are doing in their lives. Some people thrive on gossip while others couldn’t give a damn. It will be difficult to isolate myself from it all but I will do it. Every New Year I get to bed early and sleep through all the unnecessary noise of fireworks exploding and everyone who is celebrating wishing each other ‘all the best’ when in fact it never happens. So no, not everybody is interested in New Year, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Royal Weddings, Olympic Games , the FA Cup and so on. Keep the advertisements brief and infrequent and I shall be happy and don’t make the assumption that everybody is interested in everything because they are not!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising | Tagged: Advertising and Marketing, BBC, Christmas, Easter, FA Cup, Halloween, New Year, Olympic Games, Royal Wedding | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on April 14, 2011
I was watching tv at breakfast time and naturally I saw one or two adverts. Whilst watching the Special K advert something occurred to me. I wondered why all the obsession with being slim? There was this girl admiring herself in the mirror, admiring her slim figure to emphasise the benefits of eating Special K with its low-calorie content. I wondered why it is that we never see guys doing the same thing. Why don’t guys figure in these type of advert? Is it that women are assumed to be more size conscious? Does that mean that we assume all guys to be disinterested? Why do we see women parading round new cars at a car show? It is supposed to suggest some sexual connection? If so then it is degrading women folk who presumably are being regarded by men as merely sex symbols. I wonder why women readily accept the role? I see many women who are ready to be used in advertising perhaps thinking nothing of it. Society as a whole is educated into accepting many things by stealth which subsequently become the norm unless somebody raises an objection. Do you think women get used in our society?
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising, Values, Women | Tagged: Advertising, Body image, Sex symbol, Women | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on January 12, 2011
One of the most annoying things in my life is advertising. Necessary up to a point but often taken to extremes. In view of the fact that we are in a recession and many people are finding it difficult to survive or will do financially, wouldn’t you think there would be less advertising where money is involved? Oh, silly me! That is what advertising is all about. We see people short of money so they advertise gambling sites, holidays, financial investments and all sorts of things geared to encourage spending! Spending what? I think that at least during these lean times there should be a curb on high-pressure selling and encouragement to spend. Advertise if you must but take a low profile approach. Simply show what is available without the constant unnecessary added pressure that seems to pervade the advertising industry. The news is replete with stories of hardship, people having to rely on State handouts or support of one form or another. It is symptomatic of a democratic society I suppose though that the poorer among us have to have their faces rubbed in the affluence of those who are financially well off. They could do without watching adverts that promote the sale of vehicles costing £30,000, £40,000 or even more when they cannot even afford the price of bus fare sometimes. There will always be poor people in our societies but it shouldn’t be that way and need not be that way either. We cannot avoid the repercussions of a world-wide recession and we must all endeavour to tighten our belts and try to survive in these worrying times. It just seems to me that the world goes about things in some crazy ways sometimes.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising, Economy, Government, Money, Morality, Philosophy, Politics, Values | Tagged: Advertising, Advertising and Marketing, Government, People | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on October 19, 2010
Do television adverts annoy you? Maybe you like them? Perhaps they entertain? Some adverts I see are quite amusing, slightly entertaining but most are simply boring. One or two of them are quite ridiculous and annoy that much that I turn off the sound! One of these adverts is for a company called ‘Go Compare’, an Internet comparison website. It is ill-conceived and ridiculously stupid and has the opposite effect on me than it is intended to have. Not that I respond to advertising claims or rush out to buy whatever is on offer, I don’t. Oh I will remember product names and what they are offering in some cases but it doesn’t influence my buying habits. One of the joys in shopping is finding out things for yourself and buying what you see and are drawn to. It isn’t about labels or brands, special offers and deals, it is about buying what you consider meets your needs and more especially what you want to buy through your own choice. Silly background music and jingles which attempt to put you into a frame of mind and deep masculine voice-overs all serve to annoy me. I am very cynical when it comes to advertisements. I hate them!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising | Tagged: Advertising, Marketing and Advertising, Television advertisement | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 9, 2010
The advertisement I place in my local paper wasn’t there yesterday as it normally is. When I realised the error it was too late to do anything about it so I went to see the newspaper staff about it this morning. I buy six months worth, that is 26 weeks in advance and during the last week I always get a reminder to renew even though I usually remember. I had telephoned them on Tuesday to do just that but they didn’t get back to me. This week is actually the 26th week so I was ready to renew. When I talked to them about the error they claimed that I had no funds in my account even though I had already paid the six months ago in advance! I took along the last couple of years invoices which I keep in a ring-binder to prove that it was indeed the 26th week and the advert should have been placed in the paper. In essence it means that I have no advert and probably no work now for the next week unless I get calls from my established clientele. I have arranged and paid for the next 26 weeks which will run from next Wednesday (the day the paper is published). In the meantime they will investigate the error regarding that ‘lost’week and will reimburse me if they discover it was their fault. As a goodwill gesture they will increase the size of my advert for the first four weeks. I might get more work as a result of that but I rather doubt it! I returned home and an hour later received a call from their office explaining that in January next year VAT (for non nationals, value added tax) will be increasing and I will have to pay that extra amount for the weeks that fall in the new year. I give up! LOL
So it looks as though I have a weeks enforced holiday.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising, Holiday | Tagged: Advertising, Business, Newspaper | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on July 10, 2010
When signing in to this blog the very first thing I do is remove all spam comments. Actually the ‘Akismet’ program has already filtered them out and stored then in the spam folder which is automatically emptied after thirty days. I prefer to empty the folder as it fills. Of course most of the spam is pornographic in nature inviting the reader, me, to click on to a site which majors on pornographic pictures and videos. I won’t describe all that here, no doubt you already know what I am talking about. Now I am no prude but I do think that the sexual behaviour of some people is disgusting. Sex can be a very strong attraction and it is all about sensual gratification whether that be direct by participation or indirect stimulation through watching pornography. The act of sex is of course a natural thing but some things done are not natural at all. To me some things are simply disgusting. I think people who partake in abnormal sexual activity are sick people indeed. The sex industry is a very lucrative industry and it is no wonder many are involved in it. That is the way of the world. Oh people will say if there is a demand then why not supply it? The thing is though that isn’t the way it works!
On this blog and any other blog for that matter pornography is blatantly pushed into our faces whether we are interested or not. Of course this is all done automatically by the computer on which the promoter of this filth operates. I wonder why it isn’t possible to return unwanted material to the sender thus blocking that system. It seems the traffic is but one way. In this day and age it should be possible to return unwanted material so why isn’t it done?
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising, Morality | Tagged: People | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on February 14, 2010
Designer clothing, designer furniture, state of the art electronics………Just what do these statements mean? These words are the jargon of the advertising industry. They actually mean nothing, well nothing to the more discerning. All things which are called ‘designer’ have no real edge on other things. What is the difference between ‘designer’ clothing and any other clothing? Nothing! All things need designing else they wouldn’t exist! What the advertising industry are trying to imply is that ‘designer’ clothes have been specially designed and will be more ‘bespoke’. So why don’t they just say that? Usually you will find that ‘normal’ clothes are just as good as ‘designer’ ones. If you want to talk about fashion well that is a different matter but what is ‘fashion’ anyway? Only the latest style or something that makes it different from everyday things. That of course is subjective. The latest fashion doesn’t mean it is any better but the industry encourages us to believe it. A whole industry depends on it! The same thing applies to ‘state of the art’ items. All this means is they use the most recent developments in technology and does not imply they are any better although in many cases that is true. It is all about making us think they are somehow better and encouraging us to buy. Many people fall into the trap of thinking they actually must have the latest technology when in fact they do not. There is nothing wrong in having the best of anything but there is something wrong when we think we cannot do without it.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising | Tagged: Advertising, Philosophy | 5 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on November 18, 2009
I wish I was back in time, to a time when we didn’t have technology except in places like hospitals. I don’t know about you but I personally I hate mobile phones, iPods, computers, all singing all dancing televisions and other ‘desirable’ electronic gadgets. If the media are to be believed we all ‘want’ these things. Advertisers proclaim that these are ‘must have’ items. Phooey! I wished I could live without it all. About the only thing I really need and that only because of my work is the mobile phone. Many new phones connect to the Internet and allow access to email and on-line browsing, like I really cannot do without those functions! My phone is there so people can ask me to work for them, simple and that is all I require. I watch television but all I watch are the basic programs that are broadcast. I have a DVD recorder and home cinema system too but they gather dust for me. I don’t want an iPod and have to buy loads of music to make it worthwhile. I listen to the radio for that. There are many things electrical which I do find useful, washing machine, refrigerator and freezer, cooker and microwave oven, kettle and vacuum cleaner and of course lighting, heating and other things but all these are simply functional and I don’t get enjoyment out of using them as perhaps I would from something which entertains, like the television. I want my electrical goods to be useful, simple and necessary. Maybe I’m a dinosaur or Luddite but I don’t like technology for technology’s sake. I would prefer a much simpler way of life whereby the electrical products I do have don’t control me. I apply this principle to most things in my life and I resist any suggestions that advertisers would have me believe in that I need this or that item, technological or otherwise. Take me back in time.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Advertising, Technology | Tagged: Advertising, Technology | 4 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on March 24, 2009
Do advertisements annoy you? I am referring to television advertisements. When I watch tv., yes I do watch tv., I find myself being very cynical of the advertisements and the way they are made. I am not in the least influenced by advertising and am certainly not influenced by the subtle ways they attempt to impose their ideas on me. It gets to a point whereby I will totally ignore them and go buy something else! I guess I am a rebel when it comes to advertising. I have to advertise myself in order to get work and my adverts make no claims but state the simple facts about my business, what the business is and what I do, no embellishments just a simple statement to let people know I am there. The thing is this, it works! I feel that advertising these days goes unecessarily too far.
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Advertising | Tagged: General Chat | 9 Comments »
