A while back I blogged about the deceptive advertising practices by FreeCreditReport.com (sorry no link for bad boys). Today’s NY Times echoes my dismay. FCR, which is actually owned by the big credit reporting service Experian, claim to offer “free” credit reports, but they actually require enrollment in a $15/month paid service. “Consumer groups have […]
Category Archives: television
Tim Russert R.I.P.
Only the good die young? Another one bites the dust? How do you describe the unthinkable? My mouth literally fell open at the news today that Tim Russert had died suddenly. It felt like a death in the family, although I never knew him except from his television appearances and books. Tim was one of […]
Free Credit Report: deceptive advertising?
“What the headline giveth, the small print taketh away,” grumbles the old advertising cynic. Sad to say it’s true, even in this era of supposed transparency. Take the TV ads for FreeCreditReport.com. A young guy dressed like a pirate, singing (OK, lip-syncing) a catchy little tune about he’s stuck in this nowhere job because his […]
Can squiggles on a whiteboard define your company? Ask UPS.
Am I the only one who gets mesmerized by those ultra-simple UPS commercials? Apparently not, according to Slate’s Seth Stephenson, who gives a great behind-the-scenes look at those ads here. (You can watch the whole series of UPS spots here.) You can’t take your eyes off them. There’s something about all that white space, and […]
Out, damned Couric
Talk about mis-cast. Katie Couric was never right for the CBS Evening News. Miss Perky was a big success in the morning, on the Today show. But her brand was all wrong for an evening newscast. She was too soft for hard news. [Aside: Dan Rather was all wrong, too, imho. Too edgy and twitchy […]
Mortgage crisis? What mortgage crisis?
The mortgage market is in turmoil, thanks to the subprime fiasco. Millions of homeowners face foreclosure, mortgage lenders are losing billions, new loans are impossible to get — hey, wait a minute. If mortgage loans are so hard to get, why are Countrywide, Ditech and other big lenders still running TV ads every 5 minutes? […]
Shocker: "Botox" contains BOtulism TOXin
Another brand shoots itself in the foot. Botox, the popular anti-wrinkle drug, and its competitor, Myobloc, have both been officially linked to dangerous botulism symptoms. In a few cases, the symptoms were so bad that children given the drugs for muscle spasms have died, according to the Food & Drug Administration. This should not be […]