On Tue, 20 May 2008 09:19:27 +0100, Phil Cook wrote:

>> Better that than "serving the needs of yesterday tomorrow". :-)
> 
> I wouldn't want to compete with the government.

LOL, good one.

>> LOL, if I start laughing and have to explain to coworkers.  Bugger,
>> forgot to mute my phone and had to explain about cats fighting
>> outside....
> 
> Gods I'm still free-associating "Why settle for being served by ugly
> people, get your store to call Supermodels 4 Hire today", "Still
> breathing the same old regular air as everyone else? Don't you deserve
> better? Install a PhilCo air provider. Now with 5% more oxygen!"

Another good one.  Funny thing, at Novell's BrainShare, they had an 
"Oxygen Bar" set up.  Someone got to talking with the folks who were 
running it, and asked where they got the oxygen from.  The word 
"breathing" was used in the answer.... ;-)

> That last bit came from a cosmetic ad that boasts its product now has %
> more oxygen... wooh! :-)

"New and Improved" is one that always gets me.  Oh, and "Organic" - as if 
the other option is "Inorganic".  Yuck.

>> Yep, I agree with this.  Then you get people who have no background in
>> pharmacology or chemistry making claims about drugs based on those 60-
>> second spots.
> 
> Which is the entire point it's much easier to gull them; you don't have
> to show them your clinical trials etc.

Yep.  "Gull", now there's an interesting word, in that context.

>> Heh, yeah, gotta love that.
> 
> And it's normally white text on a light background too.

In 3 point font.  One that's difficult to read.

>> I see this kind of thing fairly regularly - it's amazing what you can
>> sell people on, and how gullible the average person really is.
> 
> One of them said this herself 'If I'm spending £50 on a cosmetic then
> I'd expect to see a difference'.

Heh.  Well duh. ;-)

> Written statements to Ch4. The journalist got taken around Loreal R&D in
> Paris and asked some interesting questions about claims, the rep was
> visibly squirming.

Wish I'd seen that one.  I'd have paid for that. ;-)

> She talked to the government department about claims made by POS staff
> and the outcome was "We can't act on hearsay" despite it being taped,
> and 'they don't make these claims in their advertising or on their
> products'. So basically the POS staff can make whatever claims they like
> provided it's not written down anywhere or broadcast.

Gotta love deniability.  They should send someone into one of the 
training sessions on the products - POS staff does need to be trained on 
the products, you know.

> Heh one rep claimed that their product 'produced new stem cells, by
> increasing their replication rate'. One medical guy said "Well we have a
> word for that - tumor"

LOL!  "Here, buy this product, it'll give you tumors - and it's designed 
to do that!"

>>>> Why am I suddenly hearing George Carlin? ;-)
>>>
>>> I don't know, has he just rung you? :-P
>>
>> Heh, wishful thinking - he doesn't know me from Adam.  I was thinking
>> about his bit on jumping up and down on seat cushions...
> 
> Don't recall that, I'll have to Google/YouTube it when I get chance.

Don't know if it's a video performance, might only be audio.  I'll have 
to dig around when I have a minute.

Jim

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