There’s a reminder in today’s In Advertising e-newsletter that while advertisers can control what they imply, they can’t control what viewers/listeners/readers infer. Take, for example, the whipping boy of the week here: Microsoft.
The slogan for Windows: “Life Without Walls.” Walls, to me, provide protection from the elements, and if your house is all windows and no walls, you can’t really get any privacy.
This is way too easy.
Microsoft’s little “I’m a PC” ad campaign is really, really getting on my nerves. For several reasons:
I’d say that’s why I’m a Mac, but I’d be guilty of two of those points, too. I like how my Macs (an iMac and a MacBook) just work without trying to solve hardware incompatibilities, and how they just stay rather fast. Of course, the good looks don’t hurt either.
Just as Barack Obama’s campaign tagline is “Change We Need,” his campaign is changing campaigning: it’s far beyond just a website.
Obama’s campaign has gone beyond the stodgy campaigns of the past in an effort to make sure young supporters actually vote: the campaign has created an iPhone application and has bought ads everywhere, even in video games. (The first ad I saw when I booted up Burnout Paradise on my Xbox: “Early Voting Has Begun” next to a picture of Barack Obama.)
That’s what Obama needs to ensure a win: getting young people energized enough to head to the polls. CBS had an interesting story the other night: polls that include cell phone users have Obama’s lead larger than in polls that don’t include cell phones, and many young people only use cell phones. (Me included, up until last week. Not to change the subject or anything, but T-Mobile@Home rocks.)
This is one young person who has already made sure his voice is heard: Obama, Udall and (with some hesitation) Heinrich. (He seems a little weak, but I had to vote against Darren White. A strong independent candidate could have killed here.) I did manage to vote early enough to avoid the lines, but I did notice that the lines tend to skew older. I am really fed up with my generation: politically vocal, but not doing the one thing that counts. Then whining afterwards.
Good thing I’m young and not planning to retire anytime soon. I was just checking in on my retirement account (which I’ll admit is kinda small at the moment), and I’ve lost 26% so far this year.
(Could be a lot worse: I enrolled in the employee stock ownership plan at work, and in one day, the stock lost 20 percent of its value. It hasn’t quite recovered yet, but at least I’m buying in right now when the stock is cheap.)
It was interesting today for me at the grocery store, especially regarding my real age, my apparent age and my “responsibility age.”
First, the joys of New Mexico’s old driver licenses. 5s, of which I have two in my birthdate, look an awful lot like 6s. Fortunately, had I been born in 1986, I would still be old enough to buy the dunkel that the store happened to be carrying this week. (Mmm… dunkel.)
Next, the joys of looking just barely out of high school. I got quite the suspicious stare from a 40-something man in the parking lot as I loaded the 12-pack of said dunkel into the trunk of my car. (By the way, I graduated five years ago.)
And a special bonus: a not-very-intelligent automatic coupon printer. You know those things that guess what you’d be interested in based on your purchases. Sometime in the first half of my checkout experience, it printed out something I definitely am not at all interested in: an AARP membership.
Which, of course, begs the question: how old will I look when I’m eligible to join the AARP?
As I have been saying on Twitter, I have noisy neighbors. One is a perfect demonstration of why responsibility should be taken into account for the legal right to drink (he should reach drinking age at roughly 83). Another is a normally quiet neighbor who apparently just got a new sound system.
But I think it’s more than that. I’m blaming Bill O’Reilly. I think there’s a vast right-wing conspiracy out there to prevent me, a fairly staunch Obama supporter, from sleeping, and it goes all the way up to Billo:
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly presides over the opening of Thursday's annual RATS conference in an apartment adjacent to the organization's target.
Nearly fell out of my chair from this picture from TotallyLooksLike.com:
By the way, Sleestaks are from “Land of the Lost,” apparently.
I’m still rather disappointed with broadcast TV, as you can see from my viewing tonight:
I probably won’t continue this blog series for the rest of the week: I just can’t care about any of the other new series. Until Chuck premieres on Monday. That brings up my dilemma: do I watch the iTunes version now or wait till the show airs in HD on Monday? (And brings up my one complaint about Warner Bros. keeping the show’s digital distribution rights - the rest of the NBC schedule is in HD on iTunes, but not Chuck.)
I saw a license plate today that’s über-nerdy, yet one I rather appreciate: FREEBSD.
Apple has a little obvious thing at the bottom of an article about a graphics firmware update:
Important: If you run the update and receive the message: “Your computer does not need this update” then your iMac does not need this update.
Really? I couldn’t have guessed from the text of the message. (What’s really sad is that people may actually get confused.)
