"class"-less advertising
something i noticed a while back. looking through the volumes of black friday ads reminded me of it. time to rant…
okay, so years ago when boob tubes were all actually tubes and not LCD’s or Plasmas or LED or CRT or whatever, if you wanted, say, a 25″ tv, you had to realize that meant diagonallyit measured 25″. which, as far as i was concerned, was already bait-and-switch advertising. a lot of people, like say, my mom, would look at their entertainment center, measure the opening for the tv horizontally and verticallyand then go to the store and want a tv that fit in that hole. so they get to the store only to discover (sans tape measure) that both measurements they’d written down at home were all but useless, because tv’s weren’t sold that way.
eventually, painfully, teeth gritting and heels dragging, we all figured it out. and, like so many things in life, as soon as you figure out the game they go and change the rules.
if you’ve bought a tv in the last few years, you’ve surely noted with some level of gratitude that they are all a hell of a lot better, and if nothing else matters, a hell of a lot lighter, thanks to the flat screens made possible by the aforementioned types of tv technologies becoming available. what you might not have been aware of is the fact that more often than not, you’re now getting short-changed by anywhere from a tenth to three-quarters of an inch. the keyword to check for is “class” i.e. a 32″-class tv, if you read the fine print may only actually have a 31.5″ viewable display, but is sold as a 32.” okay, okay, fine – i get it. and am i missing anything in that half an inch? probably not. but my issue is this: what on earth is the manufacturer saving in time or materials to cut that display down by a lousy half an inch? especially since what’s cutting it down is usually the plastic frame around the display? wouldn’t it actually save some material costs if instead they cut the plastic back an extra quarter inch all the way around and just sell the damn thing as a 32″ tv with 32″ viewable inches? seriously!
and speaking of classless advertising, have you seen the new at&t ads, supposedly defending their honor against the “misleading” verizon ads? talking about how verizon’s using maps to make it look like at&t doesn’t have as big a service area as verizon does? do they think we’re that stupid? really?? the verizon ads clearly and plainly refer to the maps as the 3g coverage maps.
to wit: i give you the verizon 3g map taken from their site today, and, after a mind-numbing jump through hoops to get it all in one place, the at&t 3g map taken from their site today (3g being the blue portions of the map, don’t let all the orangy areas fool you):
and from at&t:
now, tell me, dear reader… which do you see as having more 3g coverage, hmmm? that’s what i thought. and by the way, i now dislike luke wilson on principal. at first i didn’t like him just because he was a bad actor. now i don’t like him at all. sellout.
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