Still doubling up on the hand sanitizer

Thought you would want a little update on the swine flu situation.
1) The neighbour is alive and fully recovered from his bout with swine flu and the bonus is that he has given up smoking so now I can sit on the couch in my PJ’s and not have him watching me from his balcony while going out for various smoke breaks.
2) Sneezy swine flu man is popping up everywhere.  This was my favourite as it popped on the a cash machine screen. It actually grossed me me out as I pictured his sneeze drips all over the keypad…thankfully I had my hand sanitizer with me and doused myself with it afterwards

3) The sneezing person image seems to be international as I presume this is the Spanish version of a public service announcement about swine flu (although I am not sure I would want to catch something called  Gripe A – it sounds pretty serious)

4) How’s this for irony? The main actor dude in the swine flu ad caught swine flu!  Thankfully he wasn’t hired to teach us how to cross safely at train tracks or he might be in a whole lot more trouble.

WTF? Friday

There is so much wrong with this ad I don’t even know where to start (for one, I thought at one point they were suggesting it doubles as a back washer). This is just one of those products that I don’t think needs it’s own advert, I think word of mouth or a recommendation from a medical professional would have been sufficient. It would have at least saved the actors from the inevitable embarrassment this ad must have caused.

I know the point is that you don’t have to touch tissue again but what about having to touch the plastic thing that just rubbed itself against your nether regions?

My 15 minutes of fame

So they say everyone has their 15 minutes of fame, unfortunately I believe mine has come and gone as I was Miss March in a 1988 calendar (before you get too excited I was 9 and wearing yellow elastic waist shorts with a lovely un-matching blue top).

The reason for my rise to fame was that a neighbour had photographed me with one of (what I thought was) the coolest toy of that year…the bubble thing (fantastic name, must have taken ages to come up with).  Basically it was a giant bubble wand that you dipped in a bucket of water and dish detergent to make giant bubbles. I stumbled upon this fantastic commercial that explains it.

I love the marketing message…you a loser that just moved to a new neighbourhood? Get a bubble thing and you will be the coolest kid on the block (they missed out on the added advantage of being  featured in a calendar).  Sadly though when I think back, I am pretty sure we got that just around the time we moved to a new neighbourhood where I didn’t have many friends.  We generally did have quite a crowd around us after the neighbours noticed 6 foot bubbles going by their windows…so I guess the overenthusiastic announcer was right ‘bubble thing makes people curious’…score 1 for marketing.

Enjoy…oh yeah, the calendar image is below the advert…let me reiterate about the amazing elastic waistband and the unimpressive ‘the bubble is this big’ look on my face.

Know your limits

Further to the anti bing drinking campaign I talked about a few months ago, a new follow up video has been released for an online audience.  This one continues on from the ‘you wouldn’t do it sober’ campaign and takes to the streets asking people to engage in some antics that people tend to get up to when hammered.  It is brilliant and well worth a watch as I am sure some of you can relate to the scenarios – I might have laughed out loud at the traffic cone one as I woke up one morning in uni to find a giant traffic cone in my living room.

Again, I think it is a great government lead campaign and I like that they take a more relevant to the audience by using irony as a way to get the message across.  Even the strap line of ‘know your limits’ still feels like they are leaving the decision up to you but giving you the facts to base the decision on versus a lecture type message.  More info on the campaign can be found here.

After watching the clip however, I couldn’t help but try to think up a few more scenarios they could street test based on my friends experiences…how about eating a kebab from one of those rotating sticks?  mooning/flashing passers by?  karaoke? falling asleep on a bus? crying whilst walking down the street with a green yardstick of beer on a string around your neck?* Again, just thoughts, nothing I have actually done.

* the writer of this blog does not condone such behaviour

Right now..

I have always been fascinated with random facts (like that kid on Jerry Maguire ‘the human head weighs 8lbs’). I especially like random facts that have to do with technology so is no surprise that I am intrigued with the Sprint Now campaign dealing with exactly that both in a TV advert and online.

To be fair I am also a very skeptical person so not sure how many of these statistics are true but it does amaze me that so many people can be doing the same thing all over the world (like leaving their cell phone in a taxi – I forgot my credit card at a bar this weekend and I am now sure loads of other people did it as well – just maybe not at the same bar).

The campaign website (which you can literally kill hours on playing with each little widgit) is awash with random facts and statistics for your viewing pleasure. For the most part, the statistics seem reliable however the thing falls down a bit for me when the google widget says that ‘Frankie Avalon’ is the top term searched for today…hunh? I do however, believe the one about the babies being born as I think I know half of them, I am convinced there is a baby boom on in 2009….that’s right folks, you heard it here first.

Alright, back to watching the sticky note production numbers increase….I love sticky notes, I have one stuck to my wallet right now reminding me of the things I have to do today (Mom will be so proud to read that).

I love techy kids

I might consider having kids if someone would guarantee me they would be this amazingly geeky at 4 and a half (although mine would be Mac, not PC…and probably blonde)

With my luck however I would get one like this and I wouldn’t be able to return it to the Apple Store

Happy Birthday Little People

One of the blogs I read as a way to increase my useless knowledge mentioned that this weekend marked the 50th Birthday of Fisher Price’s ‘Little people’ (is this politically correct?)  and they were able to dig out this fantastic commercial.  The reason I am so excited about it is that I had BOTH of the ‘Little People’ play sets featured in the ad.  I remember hours of fun playing with the front doorbell of the house with the puppy in the window and the mooing barn door on the farm…it rocked.

I also had the Little People Sesame street…complete with Big Bird’s nest and Mr Hooper (rest his soul) which was equally as awesome (me? spoiled?…to be fair I think Mom got them at a garage sale for $1 each and is secretly hoping they will become collectors items so she can get that condo in Florida she has always dreamt of).

It seems however that the more recent ‘Little People’ have been exposed to too much junk food, TV and genetically modified chicken as they are a bit rounder and plumper than my 1960’s version….a ‘Little People’ gym might be a nice addition to the set perhaps?

WTF? Friday

Yes, yet another television advert which drives me nuts.  This one is just so terrible I don’t even think I have to point out the over acting, the pointless gender stereotyping and the terrible helpless woman-giggle at the end…enjoy.

(sorry quality is a bit crap but I reckon you will still get the idea and be adequately annoyed)

WTF blanket

As I have mentioned I loved the  slanket or snuggly (basically the same product, not sure why they aren’t suing the pants off of each other) the first time I saw it…genius, a backwards housecoat!  I love and admire people who don’t instantly veto stupid ideas like this and actually go as far as get prototypes made and go to their bank manager to get funding…bless you entrepreneurs -  you lost me at …have you ever wanted to wear a housecoat backwards?

Anyway seeing that I am always cold my mother made me one of these for Christmas and I have to say I wear it around like the total leeww-ser that I am (um so the other day the neighbour was on their balcony which consequentially looks right into our flat…anyway I was on the couch in my sky blue snuggly and his new girlfriend came out, not wanting to look like a lazy middle aged Smurfette, I jumped up off the couch and ran out of their line of vision, as I did my foot got caught on my snuggly and I slid 6 feet across the  wood floor…thankfully I didn’t fall down cause seeing a dead middle age Smurfette would have been mortifying).

My long blah blah was basically just to introduce this great voice over to the snuggly infomercial – warnings, contains bleeps intended to represent swearing.

Thanks Geek Sugar

WTF? Friday

One of the worst television adverts I have seen….mainly because my stiff North American upbringing makes me cringe at the word poo, which is used way too much in this ad.

I thought I misheard it the first time round but luckily saw it again and got the video to prove it…see what I do for you blog readers? Enjoy…or don’t…just make the kid stop saying POO in his posh little accent

If you liked that one, I had the same cringeworthy reaction to the word pee in this advert