Comments (0) Next time you look at a model on a billboard, keep in mind that what you are looking at is not just somone who had a team of professional astheticians dolling them up, but a digitally maniplated image.
Ogilvy & Mather’s – a world famous advertising agency shows just how unatainable the look of most billboard models really is in this very telling video.
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As pointed out in the movie ‘Super Size Me’, McDonald’s shamelessly uses brand imprinting1 to make children aware of their product and lure them into the stores. They know full well that their food is bad for you, they just don’t care – as long as people keep giving them money.
In Fredericton schools (yes, dear readers – this is happening here, in Canada), McDonald’s has sunk to an all new low. They are teaching fitness programs to children using the Ronald McDonald corporate mascot.
What is this telling children? That McDonald’s cares, that they are a company that believes in a healthy lifestyle. If the children where not aware of McDonald’s previously, they are now.
Why is this bad? Because McDonald’s does not care, they do not believe in a healthy lifestyle. All they want is children to be aware of their brand, and in a positive light. They do this so that further down the road when these children become consumers, or influencial over consumers in their lives – they do it at McDonald’s.
The man in charge of allowing this to happen, Garth Wade, actually admits that is what McDonald’s is doing. He claims they circumvented the guest-speaker process in place. I say Mr. Wade is still to blame because he is sitting idly by and pointing fingers instead of rectifying the situation and kicking the McBrainWashing bastards out of the schools. Maybe they went through the proper channels, in which case he’s lying to us for what purpose? One can only assume it is for his own gain. Not surprising, McDonald’s refuses to respond or comment on the matter.
So, as Mr. Wade attempts to cover his ass, children in his schools are being taught to eat at McDonald’s and thus will become sick, fat and pay the price for him.
It’s the running joke of the fast-food industry: You buy a sandwich and the smiling cashier asks “Would you like fries with that?” Just as ubiquitous is an electronics sales-person offering you an extended warranty, or “protection plan” as they are commonly called.
There are many reasons they do this, but as some people have figured out – it is not for the customer’s benefit. In many stores it is a requirement of continued employment. A certain percentage of all the employee’s sales must be extended warranties, or they will be unwillingly seeking alternate employment. Often the employee (comissioned or otherwise) will get a small cash incentive added to their paycheck for each plan they sell.
The stores make a large volume of profit from these protection plans, since most of them are never actually used.
Some devices are more prone to failure or repair than others and the extended warranty is a benefit. As always, let the buyer beware – look into consumer reports or online product reviews prior to making a major purchase to get an idea of a product’s reliability instead of relying on the sales-person’s opinion. They may be experts on the product but 9 times out of 10 they have no choice but to advise you to buy the warranty.
One thing I would highly suggest you never purchase the protection-plan on is PC’s, specifically the desktop systems (laptops are more difficult and expensive to repair, it might make sense depending on the model/brand you’re looking at). Most parts can be replaced for under $100, and generally the core components will be outdated long before they fail.
Just some food for thought, prompted by this article on CBC’s website. I worked for half a decade in retail electronics sales and can attest that the volume of devices we sold vastly out-paced the volume we would recieve back under these protection-plans, which are generally priced as a percentage of the item’s purchase price.
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