Advertising hall of shame

September 23, 2010 @ 10:03 pm

Sometimes I see advertising that’s so bad it actually upsets me. This week, IBM has been running full-page, full-color ads on the back of the Business section in the San Francisco Chronicle that are such a waste of money I have to wonder who at that company authorized it. I also have to wonder what ad agency spent the company’s so irresponsibly.

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On the laughable hypocrisy of 'The Office' (via General Electric) telling you what’s best for your health and the environment

April 20, 2010 @ 10:38 pm

From today’s Wall Street Journal:

What Your TV Is Telling You to Do: NBC Universal’s Shows Are Sending Viewers Signals to Recycle, Exercise and Eat Right. Why?

That’s a question I asked myself a few months ago when I was watching one of my favorite shows, “The Office.” I remember getting a funny feeling watching a scene in which office manager Michael Scott asks the employees for ideas on how they might be better citizens via volunteerism. Then a few weeks later, Dwight harangues fellow employees to recycle as a recycling-obsessed mascot called “Recyclops.” As someone who’s watched “The Office” since the first episode, I also noticed that there sure seem to be a lot of episodes in which people get wasted and it’s depicted as a good time had by all (…except once, when white-trash Meredith, the office alcoholic, lights her own hair on fire at a party. Even so, Meredith’s punchlines revolve more around her twisted sexual misadventures more than they do alcohol-related bummers like loss of a job, DUIs or psoriasis of the liver.)

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