Might Be Possible To Shut Off Those Annoying Gas Pump Video Ads

I'll have to try this: It might be possible to shut off the
sound of those annoying ads at newer gas pumps. 

I came across something today that I want to try the next time I fill up the gas tank of the Tacoma.

Lifehacker, via Reddit, says it's possible to shut of the blaring ads and news headlines from the video monitors that are popping up like crazy at newer gas pumps.

All you have to do, the theory goes, is push either the top right or the second to the top right button next to the video monitor on the gas pump. This is perfect for people like me, who don't want to be constantly bombarded with ads no matter what I'm doing.

The video will still play, but at least you can turn your back on that.

Of course the drawback now is this news is out, so I'm sure they'll redesign the gas pumps so you won't be able to shut off those awful ads when all you want to do is buy some gas.

We'll see how this goes.

1940s Anti-Fascist PSA's Getting New Attention After Charlottesville

A 1940s-era anti-fascist PSA has become
newly relevant, unfortunately.

Back in the 1940s, as Nazis tried to take over the world, the U.S. government released a bunch of public service announcements and films denouncing fascists.  

Made sense then.

Makes sense now, especially after Charlottesville and when we have a president that pretty much gives a wink and a nod to the Nazis and white supremacists who caused death and heartache over the weekend.

There's a 17-minute version of the film you can see by clicking on this link from The Atlantic. 

There's another video, below, that's a more streamlined version of this very relevant clip.

In both versions of the film, we hear words from a blustery fascist American politician that we are now hearing some version of today:

"I see negroes holding jobs that belong to me and you. Now, I ask you, if we allow this thing to go on, what's going to happen to us real Americans?"

The loudmouth then blames blacks, Catholics, Freemasons and immigrants for the nation's problems.

In the clip, a young man is almost persuaded by the rhetoric until the idiot speaker mentions Freemasons, as he's one.

Then a man with an eastern European accent - an immigrant from Hungary who became an American citizen - schools the younger man on just how dangerous this rhetoric is.

The clip should be required viewing for all of us. Here it is:

The Saddest Loser In the Trumpcare Debacle. Plus, Some Premature Partying

This man in the White House is trying to be
intimidating. It ain't working 

When there's a train wreck, I often like to look for the most tragic piece of the disaster.

With the collapse of Trump's "repeal and replace Obamacare idiocy, I nominate Steve Bannon.

No, I don't have any sympathy for him, but if news reports are right, he's turned into the picture of pathetic.

A lot of these reports are not wonderfully sourced, so I don't trust them completely, but the descriptions of Bannon during this debacle are striking.

Bannon fancies himself a tough guy, the authoritarian boss who gets things done. He can bully anyone into submission, and he will push until he gets his way. Or so he thinks.

The web site Axios reported that hardline conservative Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus went to the White House as the Trump administration lobbied them to go along with the Obamacare repeal.

Bannon reportedly told the Congressmen: "Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill."

Riiight.

If anything, such attemps at bullying probably prompted the GOPers to dig in their heels against the bill.

Axios said one of the Congressmen replied to Bannon: "You know, the last time someone ordered me to do something, I was 18 years old. And it was my daddy. And I didn't listen to him, either."

Now, apparently, the recalcitrant Republicans are on Bannon's "shit list."

Oooh! A shit list! How scary!

Apparently, the Republicans against Trumpcare are going to face he wrath of Bannon and Trump, but the pair have repeatedly proven they are paper tigers, so there's that.

There's nothing more laughable and silly than a bully trying to bully people who aren't afraid of the bully.

Meanwhile, there was a little bit of premature celebrating among some Republicans, particularly a GOP super PAC, which launched television ads Friday evening encouraging viewers to thank their Republican reps for killing Obamacare.

Ooops.

The ads ran during "March Madness" NCAA college basketball tournament games Friday, so there were a lot of viewers to see it.

The ads said in part, according to The Hill: 

"'Republicans are keeping their promise, with a new plan for better health care,' one of the American Action Network advertisements said. 'Thank (California) Congressman Darrell Issa for keeping his promise and replacing the Affordable Care Act with the better healthcare you deserve."

Or not.

Here's the ad:

Surprisingly, I'm On Jan Brewer's Side As She Considers Lawsuit

A couple of the dubious web ads that
were placed using images of former Arizona
Gov. Jan Brewer. She's threatening to sue.  

I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of Jan Brewer.  But now she's threatening to sue an advertiser, and I'm totally rooting for her.

Brewer, you might remember, came under fire  (and was praised in other quarters) when she signed into law that required police to determine people they encountered whether they were in the United States illegally.  

She turned into a lightning rod with that one. But she later did not seek re-election and had largely faded from the spotlight.

Brewer cropped up again as the face on one of those annoying snake oil ads that appear on so many web sites.  Some show doctored "before and after" photos of Brewer after she'd gotten the purported company's wrinkle removing doohickey or whatever.

Brewer is 70 years old, and lives in sunny Arizona, so you don't expect her to look like a 20 year old.

Worse, Brewer never agreed to be the model for the ads. They company or ad agency just swiped the photos from the Internet.

The ad that pictures Brewer said she got the "revenge makeover" after her husband dumped her because she had gotten so "ugly"

"Divorced For Being So 'Old'" reads the ad's headline.

In reality, Brewer and her husband John have been happily married for nearly 50 years now.

Brewer told the Arizona Republic "It's obviously a very distorted and unflattering photo, and it's hurtful and it's wrong....I want whoeer is behind the use of this image to cease and desist and do so immediately, or it will leave me no option but to pursue legal recourse against them."  

I'm not linking to the Arizona Republic ad because of the hoops you have to go through to get to it, and because there's an autoplay, but the paper said RevContent and Content.ad placed the advertisements.

RevContent said it is not the orignator of the ad.

Content.ad said it is investigating the circumstances of the ad's placement, but will stop running it.

We'll see if there is eventually a Brewer lawsuit, but I'm behind her on this one.

It's one of many examples of advertisers using a person's likeness to peddle their (sometimes dubious) products, and it DOES have to stop.

Don't Jerk And Drive In South Dakota

This seems to be a little insulting: My in-laws have been told not to "jerk and drive."

The South Dakota road (and sexual?) safety hashtag

The Modereger clan lives largely in South Dakota, and actually, they were among all South Dakota state residents who were recently told to not "jerk and drive."

Before we go on, South Dakota authorities tell us to get our minds out of the gutter. See, "don't jerk and drive" is not really a message to not, um, have fun with yourself while you're driving, though that's strongly discouraged too.

Television station KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska says what South Dakota state road safety officials are trying to say is to not jerk the steering wheel while you're driving on icy winter South Dakota roads - and presumably any road anywhere that has snow or ice on it.

Says a South Dakota public service announcement:

"Should your tire leave a snowy or icy road, resist the urge to jerk the steering wheel. Over correcting only results in chaos. Besides, nobody likes a jerker."

The South Dakota director of Public Safety says he's aware of the campaign's double meaning. He says South Dakota drivers should keep their cars out of the ditch and their minds out of the gutter.

So take THAT, you people driving across South Dakota in the winter!

However, someone with the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety says the campaign has outperformed previous ones and has reached the demographic of young men, which is hard to reach, says KMTV.

So actually, in a way, the state is keeping its mind in the gutter, because they know young men sometimes have their minds there, too, apparently.

Well, as long as we keep their cars out of the ditch, I guess that's fine.

However, we now have some sad late breaking news, The Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, South Dakota is now reporting the state is going to pull the "Don't Jerk and Drive" campaign. 

I guess some state lawjerkers, er, lawmakers, were upset with the ad campaign

According to the Argus Leader:

"Before the cancellation, state Rep. Mike Verchio was planning on calling (highway safety director Lee) Axdahl before the Transportation Committee next month to 'explain why they would do something like that.'"

Like why isn't obvious to Verchio, a Republican from Hill City, South Dakota. But Verchio said his constitutents were upset by "Don't Jerk and Drive"

The ad campaign was successful, as anything strange like this would be.

State authorities said more than 16,000 people saw the campaign, with its #Don'tJerkAndDrive hashtag, and this public safety campaign outperformed previous ones by a ratio of 25 to 1.

Outperformed, get it?

OK, time to get my mind out of the gutter. I'll stop being a jerk now.

Election Day, Let's Look Back At This Season's WONDERFUL Campaign Ads!

A still from one of my awards for, um,
best campaign ads for 2014.

I hope you're all out busy voting right now and will get to reading this blog post once you've cast your ballot.

Now here's your treat: The Mattie Awards! The awards, named after, well, me, highlight the peaks in creativity in 2014 campaign ads.

Without further ado, here we go:

Best use of an animal in an ad: This one by the National Republican Congressional Committee criticizing a Georgia Democrat. The monkey on the lady's back is a wonderful touch:




Next, we have the awards for the Best Special Effects In A Political Ad, by which I mean the worst special effects, obviously. Here's Michigan Republican Party's attempt at Sharknado:





A new category this year: Best (Worst) Rip-Off Of A Movie Song. The Texas Lt. Governor's race featured this steal from "Frozen" Careful, it is PAINFUL!




Next is the Mattie Award for the best use of a prop, in this case, a coffee cup:




Best Action/Adventure campaign ad: Alligators in Louisiana!




The Mattie for the Best Political Sex Scenes goes to the anti-John Boehner "Electile Dysfunction" ad
Yeah, it's scary, but watch anyway:




I'd go on with these Mattie Awards, but I'm starting to get a little ill. So happy voting!!

Guy Who Created Pop Up Ads Says He Wasn't Trying To Annoy You And Apoloigize

A programmer is really, really, really sorry
for accidentally forcing popup ads on us.  

The guy who is largely responsible for those totally annoying pop up ads that interrupt EVERYTHING on line, even if you use things like Adblock, is really, really sorry for all this.

Ethan Zuckerman said he was tasked some years ago with finding way for advertisers to put some space between what they were trying to sell stuff on the web page that really wasn't a good match for what they were trying to peddle.

"Specifically, we came up with it when a major car company freaked out that they'd bought a banner ad on a page that celebrated anal sex," Zuckerman said in an article in The Atlantic. (I got this via Consumerist)

Of course, advertisers ran with this, knowing it would be totally intrusive. The theory, which I have yet to find a good explanation for, is if they really annoy and piss us off, we'll buy their product.

Searching all over the place, I have not found any logical explanation as to why I'd want to buy something from someone who angered me, and whether there are actually people out there who would buy things because the advertiser totallly got them steamed.

I guess it's wishful thinking on their part.  Sort of a stalker mentality. Some advertisers thing if they keep pursuing us, to the ends of the Earth, we'll see the error of our ways and fall in love with them.

Meanwhile, we're filing restraining orders. Too bad we can't file restraining orders against most of the people who produce the most awful ads.

But I suppose I'll forgive Zuckerman, since he really didn't intent to sow these awful Internet pop up weeds.

One more pop up ad, though, and I'll pop that advertiser in the face, just you wait.

Here's Some Television Ads Improved With A Little Editing

Some television ads, edited and tweak for improvement. 

BoingBoing pointed out an outfit called r/CommercialCuts which takes familiar television commercials, and tweaks them a little through the power of judicious editing.  

Some sick minds there, but hilarious.

As BoingBoing notes, Digg has some excellent samples of r/CommercialCuts work. Here are two I know you'll like, if you're a sick puppy like me:  

One is a revamped Princess Cruise ad:



And you know that charming Jif Peanut Butter commercial where the kid makes his own lunch before heading off to school? That's not all he made:

Cool Ad: Incoming Subway Blows Around The Hair of the Model In the Ad

Here's a advertising idea that might be a little startling but really cool

The hair on the model of this ad blows
in the "wind" when the train enters the station.

At a train station in Stockholm, Sweden, there's what looks like an ad for a hair car product, the kind of still ad with a photograph you see at any train station or public place like that.

Then, according to Mashable, when the train rolls into the station with its little rush of a breeze, the "photograph" becomes animated. The model's hair blows in the wind like she's there, caught in the gust from the train: an

Says Mashable:

"Apotek, a pharmacy brand, outfitted subway platform ads in Stockholm with ultra-sonic sensors that discerned when a train was coming. The ad featured a model with a lush mane, and when the train came, her hair flapped in the wind and she struggled to keep it in place"

The ad probably scares some passersby who don't expect the ad to move like that, but it does draw attention.

And the thinks kids do with technology these days!

Here's the Vimeo video of the ad:


Apotek Hjärtat - Blowing in The Wind from Ourwork on Vimeo.

ANOTHER Good Ad! Could This Be A Trend?

Yesterday, I congratulated Google on producing a very well made advertisement that simultaneously pitched its products and told a compelling story.

A still from the funny, silly "Show the Joe" Kmart ad

Well, Gollee! I found another good ad today. It's a holiday offering, and I almost never find Christmas pitches I can stomach. But this one is actually good.

It's from Kmart, of all retailers. They're pitching the Joe Boxer line of mens underwear, and the ad actually made me laugh out loud. I might not buy Joe Boxer products, but they made me remember them, and mention the ad to others, so the pitch was successful.

The ad agency is DraftFCB

Here's the honest-to-goodness silly and fun ad:

An Even BETTER Political Ad Than The One I Gave You Earlier

Maybe we're getting too much into politics here, given the bizarre ad I gave you from a Minneapolis mayoral candidate the other day.  

Tea Party Republican Carl Sciortino Sr. reacts
to his son Carl Sciortino Jr's  liberalism in the younger
Sciortino's wonderful campaign ad.  

But another campaign ad really made the rounds yesterday and it is even better than the weird one from earlier this week. And this one is  actually kind of hopeful.

Carl Sciotino Jr. is running for Congress from the Massachusetts 5th District. He's a gay Massachusetts liberal and proud of it. (Well, what do you expect from Massachusetts?)

Sciotino's dad is a total Tea Party Republican. You'd think the Sciotinos would hate each other.

After all, when we watch the news, the Tea Party people seem to want liberals dead, and vice versa. They hate, hate HATE!!!! each other.

This political ad, however, uses the differences between the son and father to promote the Sciortino campaign, and show that people can love each other even if there are severe differences of opinion.

The ad has the younger Sciortino recalling the moment he came out to his father. Not as gay. But as a liberal. (GASP!!)

It might help that the elder Sciortino can't vote for or against his son. They don't live in the same Congressional district. 

Maybe if Sciortino is elected, he can help prove that differing political parties can work together. That's probably too much to ask for, though.

Here's the ad. It's wonderful. Enjoy:

My Superbowl Ad Choices

Everybody and their brother has weighed in on their favorite Superbowl ads. So I will, too.

In the comedy division, First Place goes to the Oreos fight  in the library ad. I've always wanted to create chaos in the library and here was my chance to do it vicariously.





In the not-comedy division, here's the one I shouldn't like. I'm not a fan of Budweiser and the ad is emotionally manipulative and certainly doesn't make me want to drink Budweiser.  But it is so sweet. (I'm a sucker for animals) and the Stevie Nicks track makes it very nice.




Another one that is at least as good, but I initially overlooked, is one for Dodge trucks, called "God Made a Farmer."  (Hat tip to my sister Lynn for calling attention to my oversight)

What's especially good about this one is, it makes you like Dodge trucks precisely because the vehicles didn't star in the video. Instead, it's a tribute to the people who use the trucks. In the background, famed commentator Paul Harvey is heard reading his essay "God Made a Farmer," while some beautiful still photography of farms and farmers roll past. This isn't a commercial. It's art.




So which on ads were your favorites?