With the Potato Express I seem to have stumbled across the as-seen-on-tv holy grail – A product with both a ridiculous commercial and actual functionality.
Read MoreThe Return of the Cereal Killer
Last summer I wrote about replacing my morning cereal with a tasty mix of raw nuts and seeds. While it’s filling (and easy to mix up a different batch day to day), I’ll admit that the base of coconut flakes exponentially increased the amount of time I spent chewing in the morning. Like, an insane amount…
Read MoreFrom the mouths of babes
When I was a teenager, over the course of about a week, three different companies starting building self-storage facilities along the same block. It was as if, unbeknownst to each other, they all bought the same consumer research poll that indicated my neighborhood was full of people with too much stuff willing to pay for storage.…
Read MoreCereal killer
These days, it seems like using the word “carb” is akin to shouting “Voldemort!” in a room full of wizards. And not without some merit. While carbohydrates are undeniably delicious (my ideal lunch involves a fresh, crusty loaf of bread, butter, and nothing else), the reason we find them so palatable is the simple biological fact…
Read MoreMixed messages
The purpose of any advertising is fairly straightforward – to get you to do something. More often than not they want you to buy something, but ads can also try to convince you to think or feel a certain way about something. However, lately I’ve been seeing more and more ads that just slightly miss the…
Read MoreIt’s a dirty job
Since returning to America, I’ve had the chance to watch a fair bit of daytime television. This also means that I’ve had the chance to watch a fair bit of daytime advertising. The ads (appropriately so) are demographically split pretty evenly between retired people and women, since these are the two groups most likely to…
Read MoreNot buying it
I normally pay about as much attention to insurance commercials as I do ads for AARP travel discounts. And considering I’m not really their desired demographic, they probably pay about the same amount of attention to me. However, a recent campaign from AXA caught my eye, and unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. The basic…
Read MoreNow that’s a catchy tune!
Well, sort of. Catchy in that, dear lord I can’t get it out of my head (get it out of my head!) kind of way. Infomercials (which I love dearly) are often guilty of ridiculous soundtracks, but this list includes some more mainstream products as well. It seems that this economic downturn has finally reached…
Read MoreThe Advertising Twilight Zone
Now in month 10 of unemployment, I have taken up a new pastime: commercial heckling. I often find myself screaming at television ads, or more specifically, screaming at the creative teams behind the ads. “What the hell were you thinking?” is the most common jeer, but in a close second is the ever-popular, “I could…
Read MoreLook with your special eyes
It’s not often that something can make me laugh, without fail, every time I see it. But when he looks with his special eyes and sees ::gasp:: his brand, I nearly pee myself. I can’t get enough of this commercial for 1-800-Contacts. It reminds me a bit of an ad that was done by Publicis…
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Positively Natalie 