Exposing a Stupid Marketing Concept: Money Saved Isn't Money Earned

Everytime I hear an ad on the radio that talks about discounts and marked down prices they seem to invoke a failed concept as an added incentive to try and get you to buy. They invoke the idea that, because you've saved money from them, you have this big wad of cash leftover that you get to keep.

The reason this is as failed concept is because there is no pile of money that equals the full price of the item to begin with. People either buy it on credit (and lose the benefit of the discounted price in finance fees) or they save their money and wait for a sale to afford it. At least that's what I do, I can't really speak for anyone else.

The same thing applies to the Cash Back deals that car dealers advertise. You aren't going to get a car and a big wad of hundred dollars bills. You'll get a car and some of the price knocked off the top (though the dealer will still make a hefty chunk of change on the transaction).

Money saved isn't money earned and a discount doesn't equal more money in your pocket, it just equals less money taken out. Trying to convince me otherwise smacks of economic jiggery.

Sexy Logos and Subliminal Sexification

I'm a fan of clever marketing. I am also a fan of euphemistic sexual references (when I was younger, my pals and I would come up with humorous ways to indicate having sex, "washing her dishes" was a favorite). So it was with interest that I read on Gizmag, A-style: harmless nipple-slip or unfair tactics.

And I had to go and find myself a decent A-style logo to examine. You tell me, is that a sexually graphic image up there?

What if you were told that its actually an image of two people having doggystyle sex? Can you see it now?

It is clever and it is sexually based but is it over-the-top and in need of a censorship smackdown? I don't think so but then I'm not one to tend toward prudishness.

I'm all for clever advertising but only so far as it doesn't blast graphic sexuality or violence into my face. The A-style logo is clever, naughty and kind of funny. Just as I'm sure it was intended to be.

Its the Clapper for Your Cock!

I'm not much of a fan of the commercials for boner pills. Now, I'm not saying I'm not a fan of a pill or med that allows a man to enjoy a fuller, more satisfying sex life. Quite the contrary, the more sex going on in the world, the better as far as I'm concerned. People who get laid regularly are happier, healthier and less prone to road rage or other fits of violence.

Its the commercials I despise.

The most recent is for Cialis where the older couple is chillin' in their empty nest of a house, about to get their freak on in the living room when the door opens and its daughter home from college on a surprise (but a happy surprise they are quick to say) visit.

But with superduper boner pill Cialis, you've got a 36 hour window to sprout some trouser wood. Cialis is, basically, the Clapper for your cock.

You want a boner? Clap once.

You want some rest? Clap twice and boner go down.

Clap on, clap off, the Clapper!

And don't even get me started on those incredibly annoying Enzyte commercials with the dude with the shit eating grin and the unbelievably irritating soundtrack. And then they have the gall to play those stupid ads back to back, just in case you didn't get enough of the smarmy pap the first time.

Viagra, at least, can poke some fun at itself (and others, hardyharhar).