Don't Get Me Wrong, I Love Sports…
I will be off the air until next Tuesday – – March 5.
My long-suffering wife and I are heading to Arizona to spend a weekend with friends from grad school days. I will be taking in a handful of Spring Training baseball games; my wife will be taking in crafts fairs and museums. A good time will be had by all…
See you next week…
Stay well, everyone.
I am well aware that advertising – and advertisers – pay the freight so that I can sustain my TV sports habit. I appreciate the mountains of money that they bestow on TV networks thereby making sports programming valuable commodities to those networks for the simple reason that it gives me access to lots of sports stuff. Just as, however, I recognize and appreciate the democratic form of governance that is extant in the US, I can still criticize the US Government when it does something dumb, I have no qualms about pointing out those advertisements that are bad. Some are in poor taste; some insult the intelligence of the viewer; some are just stupid.
Let me interject here a definition from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:
“Advertisement: A medium through which people who truly care about your welfare (and not at all about money) provide you with helpful, extremely subtle reminders that your bad breath, body odor, cell phone provider and make of car all have to go.”
As I watch games on TV, I make notes along the way regarding dumb or annoying ads. Then I gather them up and use them as fodder for the final rant of the calendar year. I never bother to “hold over” a few bad ads from one year to the other; I never have to worry about a lack of material for the next calendar year. That has never been a problem.
In 2018, we had mid-term elections and that meant my sports viewing activities would be assaulted with campaign ads run by the candidates and also by influence groups on behalf of candidates. There is not a single campaign ad ever produced that is completely candid/truthful. The only redeeming quality for political campaign ads is that they are absent from my television in odd numbered years. I shall only consider commercial enterprises here and the ads they present to try to induce me to buy whatever they are selling.
Let me begin this year’s Bad Ads compilation by referring you to a generic set of ads. I am referring to ads for medicines/drugs that you should “talk to your doctor about”. They purport to rid patients of various maladies – some significant and others much less significant – but there is no free lunch. Each of these ads has the voiceover guy – – and it always a “guy” – – reading a list of side effects and potential problems that have been noted in patients who take the medicine in question. About the only side effect I have not yet heard described in that portion of this class of ads is having a third arm grow out of the middle of your forehead. [Aside: That might come in handy while doing push-ups …] And somewhere in that whole spiel is a tip of the hat to two things:
Every one of these medicines reminds you not to take the medicine if you are allergic to it or to any of its components – none of which you have ever heard of. Seriously now, if one is allergic to poison ivy, does that person need to be reminded not to use the leaves as toilet paper if nature calls while hiking in the woods? C’mon now…
While I am on the subject of categories of ads, have you noticed that all the car company ads are pretty much the same? They all show the vehicles driving on scenic highways with no other vehicles in sight from horizon to horizon – – or they show them in the city pulling up to hotels or restaurants where there are no other vehicles parked within a half-acre of the front door. Really? Does that ever happen to you? Oh, and every car maker asserts that they have the “best features in their class”. If you hauled five different carmakers into court and forced them to try to prove that assertion, you could probably get a jury to find all five of them guilty of false advertising.
In terms of car ads that were either stupid or annoying or both:
The same general concept of impossible outcomes applies to insurance company ads. Every one of them claims that the average person who switches to their company saves hundreds upon hundreds of dollars per year. While that is mathematically possible, it does make you wonder how all those astronomically priced insurance companies stay in business. Or maybe the way they stay in business is that their clientele comprises that stupid segment of the population who must be reminded not to take medicines they are allergic to.
For the record, the last time I compared auto insurance prices for the same level of coverage from three of the large national insurance companies, the difference in cost from the “most expensive” to the ”least expensive” was $4 per six months. So, I wonder if all those alleged savings of hundreds of dollars per year come from reducing the level of coverage as one changes insurers. If so, that would be highly deceptive advertising, no?
There are several insurance ads that go beyond questionable in terms of the math and take themselves squarely into the stupid realm:
Back to generic advertising for a moment… Have you noticed how many inter-racial couples there are in ads these days? I guess it is a way to show a ‘post-racial” image of a company and it does provide a way for the ad to “identify with” more than a single demographic. However, it is not as “progressive” as it might make itself out to be.
Consider that DirectTV had an ad where a black female and a white male are in the process of breaking up. He is on the street; she is in their second story digs and is tossing all his stuff out onto the pavement. Wanna bet you never see a guy – of any race – throwing a woman’s stuff out the window at her on the sidewalk? No one in the neighborhood thought to call the police because it was a guy standing there trying to catch his stuff on the way down?
I cannot wait until the surviving family of some teenaged twit sues Red Bull for false advertising – – “Red Bull Gives You Wings” – – when the teenaged twit jumps off a bridge aiming to soar and fly his way into some treetops far off in the distance. He won’t make it; he will become the forest equivalent of a “pavement pizza”; but his family will take it to court. Red Bull does not give you wiiings; it does give you gas … but not wiiings.
Olive Garden had an ad touting ‘Buy one, Take one” in their restaurants. According to the ad, you go to Olive Garden and order a main course; then you can take another helping of that main course or some other main course home with you for consumption at some later time. Sounds good? Well, I don’t want to drop a torrential rain on your parade here, but there is a drizzle you will need to deal with:
You have to look quickly to catch this, but Castrol is the official motor oil of the NFL. What might it mean to be the official motor oil of the NFL? Do all the lawnmowers in the stadiums with grass run with Castrol oil? Maybe all the team buses use that product? Motor oil is a big deal regarding NASCAR and/or Formula 1 racing; it has nothing to do with a screen pass left. That makes about as much sense as Riddell signing on to be The Official Shoulder Pad Manufacturer for the US Olympics Women’s Gymnastics Team. Sheesh…
There were two iPhone ads this year that were stunningly annoying. There was an ad where a teenage girl unlocks her phone with a facial recognition app and then manages to unlock anything and everything that she walks past. Fortunately for all of us– I suppose – she does not meander past death row or the large cat house at the zoo. The ad is abjectly stupid – and then it compounds that by being annoying.
In another iPhone tour de force, the message in the ad is that you can do group video chatting with the phone and the wireless carrier. To demonstrate this the ad features about a half-dozen Elvis-impersonators singing There’s Always Me. Question:
Let me pose a rhetorical question here: Who is the guy you would most like to see dipped in molasses and strapped down to an anthill:
The obviously correct answer here is – – Both of them!
Colonel Sanders doing his dancing routine with Mrs. Butterworth is more than cheesy; it is downright creepy. Who knew that these companies were seeking the squeamish demographic?
Speaking of seeking a strange demographic, Hanes underwear had a series of ads where people took “smellfies” (sniffed their armpits to see if their body odor was detectable) and the message in the ad was that Hanes underwear would eliminate the need to take “smellfies”.
Lavazza is a coffee company for those of you who have missed out on their ad campaign and have not ever run across the brand in real life. The cornerstone of their ad campaign is that the Lavazza family has spent 4 generations of perfecting the art of blending coffee. The only conclusion one can draw from that is that the Lavazza family is pretty dumb to take 4 generations to do that. After all, once they “perfected” the blending, they cannot improve on it; so, it had to take 4 full generations of effort – by their own admission – to get to the point where they think they can rest on their laurels. Is that really the message they meant to convey in this ad campaign?
Two beer ads were startingly dumb this year:
Need I even mention how annoying the State Farm ads with Aaron Rodgers and his monumentally inept “agent”, Gabe, can be? There has yet to be one in the series that rises to the level of “not stupid”. I am not the only one who reacted negatively to this ad campaign; consider this comment from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:
“Comedown: Aaron Rodgers is 28th among NFL quarterbacks in completion percentage and 19th in yards per attempt. But even more disappointing are his latest series of State Farm commercials. Just not as witty as before. You don’t suppose that this is Mike McCarthy’s fault, too?”
Several companies run advertisements for genetic testing so that you can get in touch with your roots and understand/express your heritage. I ignore them for the same reason that I have not chosen to avail myself of the service that these companies provide. Here is why:
I will close here by simply posing a few questions and that will surely recall the stupid ads that spawned the questions:
As the days in 2018 “dwindle down to a precious few”, we all look forward to 2019 and just about everyone hopes that 2019 will be better than 2018 was. Even if one does not anticipate such improvement, one hopes it will come to pass. I too hope that advertising campaigns in 2019 are improved over what I had to experience in 2018. However, even if they all improve a lot, there will still be plenty of material for a Bad Ads rant at the end of 2019.
Does that make me a cynic or a realist? It depends on whether or not you agree with me.
I began this compendium by giving you the definition of “Advertising” from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm. Let me close here with another definition from the same source that demonstrates the power of “Advertising”:
“Bottled Water: Tap water made more palatable by a label with a mountain on it.”
Happy New Year, everyone.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I will probably be off the air until next Tuesday – 16 October – tending to some family business. Please check back then.
Stay well, all…
My long-suffering wife and I will be traveling in Northern Italy for the next week or so. I’ll be off the air until at least 26 Sept. Please check back then.
Looking ahead, I may not have enough time to catch up on “football happenings” to do a Football Friday two weeks from now. We shall see…
Stay well, everyone.
Curmudgeon Central is moving a short distance to new quarters next week. Four days after the move is completed, my long-suffering wife and I will be heading overseas for a trip that lasts three-and-a-half weeks.
I assume I will have Internet access when we get home from the trip and so I expect to be back on the air sometime around 21-23 June.
Check back then…
Stay well, everyone.
I will be on travel and without my computer until I arrive back home on Sunday 4 March. I expect that I will be back “on the air” on Tuesday, 6 March.
Please check back then.
Stay well, all …
I do not know if I will write on Monday. I will be attending a Super Bowl Party in Philly on Sunday; I am not taking my computer with me. We will be staying the night in Philly.
On Monday evening, my long-suffering wife and I have a dinner engagement here in DC. I do not know if there will be time to squeeze in a rant. If not, I will be back on the air on Tuesday, Feb 6.
Stay well, all…
I will be traveling for the next 3 weeks or so and my schedule will not accommodate any rants or commentary during that time. Please check back sometime late in September when these rants will resume.
Stay well, everyone…
It is not as if a head football coach at a major school in a major conference has never had to step down from that job “unceremoniously”. A few that come to mind are:
Add Hugh Freese to the list. Freese resigned as the head coach at Mississippi under an unusual set of circumstances. The team has been highly successful during his time at Ole Miss beating Alabama in consecutive years (2014/15) and winning a Sugar Bowl game. I remember when Ole Miss was a football powerhouse in the 1960s when they won national championships based on polls; their football fortunes more recently had tended toward “break even seasons”; then Freese arrived and the Rebels won a bit more than 60% of their games.
Opposing coaches and fanbases were – and probably still are – convinced that Freese used some “recruiting shortcuts” to assemble the talent he put on the field and the NCAA had already been peering into possible infractions that may have happened under Freese’s predecessor, Houston Nutt. Freese professes to be a man of great faith and asserts that he ran his program in accordance with those high principles and values. Whenever he was questioned about possible wrongdoing, he pointed to the faith that he wore on his sleeve and denied everything.
What came to light recently was a phone call placed from Freese’s phone – supplied by the university – to an escort service. For a man who repeatedly used his faith and his piety as an explanation for his behaviors, that would have been most embarrassing but he simply said that it was a wrong number. That story might have held because it was a short call and there was only one of them. However, juxtaposed with the ongoing NCAA investigation(s), this became a burden too big for the school to bear. So, Hugh Freese was given the opportunity to resign but the school made it clear that they were willing to invoke a “moral turpitude” clause in his contract as the basis to fire him.
Here are a few observations related to this matter:
As someone who enjoyed Batman comic books as a kid, the Hugh Freese matter has an interesting linkage. One of Batman’s old arch-enemies was Mr. Freeze; his name is homophonic with Coach Hugh Freese. Another of Batman’s villainous adversaries was Mr. Two Face; that seemingly describes Coach Hugh Freese quite well. If you had told me when I sat down to compose this rant that I would tie together Ole Miss football with old-time Batman comic books, I would have been skeptical…
The other big news from late last week was the announcement that Kyrie Irving wants to be traded from the Cavaliers with 2 years left on his contract. Reports indicate that Irving no longer wants to play with LeBron James. Let me assume those reports are completely accurate for a moment; if that is the case:
I will not pretend to know the genesis of this trade demand from Kyrie Irving nor will I pretend to know where he might want to go for the next installment of his basketball career. Naturally, there were knee-jerk analyses right after this story hit the streets suggesting either or both the Lakers or the Knicks as his next team. The Lakers might be an interesting choice but the Knicks would likely be an unpleasant stop for him. There is no way Kyrie Irving has asked for my advice and there is no reason for him to value it even a little bit, but if I were able to wave a magic wand and put him on another team where he might flourish, I would consider these options:
Given that this would have to be a trade situation, I think the Cavs would be most likely to send him to the West and not to another East team. However, there is an interesting aspect to all of this. Remember, that Dan Gilbert fired GM David Griffin and then low-balled Chauncy Billups as his replacement. Now we hear that Kyrie Irving wants out. LeBron James has only one year left on his deal before he can opt out. So, riddle me this – continuing my focus on Batman’s opponents:
Finally, here is a comment from Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald regarding fan fervor in SEC country:
“An Auburn fan showed up at SEC media days with his dog painted blue and orange. This work of art is widely considered to be the Mona Lisa of the South.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
Finally, the NBA Finals will begin tonight. Almost everyone foresaw this matchup as the crescendo to the 2016/17 NBA season back in early October 2016; now we have what we knew we were going to get. It took 1230 regular season games and a series of playoff rounds that were less exciting than a turtle race to get here; but at least, we are here. One of the things about these NBA Finals that I find interesting is that the casinos in Las Vegas have been allowed to expand their betting options.
According to this report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal from about a week ago, the sportsbooks can now take on bets on things like the MVP of the NBA Finals and on the still-to-be-had NBA Draft. The financial mavens in the NBA should be quietly elated about this expansion because those financial mavens recognize the following identity:
I looked at the early odds for the field of Finals’ MVP and found a humongous sucker bet in there. There are 19 players on the Cavs and Warriors who are named as potential winners of the MVP; seriously, even though almost no one can name 19 players on these two squads, there are odds listed for that many MVP candidates. However, none of them are nearly as bad as the sucker bet that I see:
That means you get anyone other than the 19 players who are named as potential recipients of the MVP Award.
Let me try to put that bet into perspective by saying that you can find 2 players on the Warriors who are at even higher odds than “The Field”. JaVale McGee and Zaza Pachulia are both on the board at 1000-1. And it is that silliness that points out just how big a sucker bet “the Field” would be. Looking at the active rosters from the two teams and who is not on the “19-man list of people with odds posted”, here is some of what you get for your bet on “The Field”:
If I am going to wager that one of those guys will be the Finals’ MVP, I am going to need a lot more than 500-1 odds. Maybe something like 50,000-1 …
Speaking generically about sports wagering, a report on ESPN.com says that the US Congress may be on a path to make legalized sports gambling more widespread in the US. The Congress passed PASPA in 1992 and it was a piece of well-intentioned but ill-conceived bits of legislation. To get past it, Congress needs either to repeal PASPA and replace it – – not a good optic in DC these days – – or to circumvent most of its restrictive covenants. At the moment, there has been introduced and sent to committee a bill known as the Gaming Accountability and Modernization Enhancement Act (GAME Act) and it would specifically repeal the section of PASPA that limits sports betting to those states that had it prior to a specific date or those that passed new state legislation to enact it by a certain date.
This GAME Act also provides a definition of wagering/gambling that might clarify what Fantasy Sports might be. It says that a wager is:
“… the risking of something of value including virtual currency or virtual items, upon the outcome of a contest of others, a sporting event or a game of skill or a game of chance, on the expectation that the person will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.”
Please note that this definition would place things like state sponsored lotteries and fantasy sports in the same category as “sports betting”. Supporters of the GAME Act point out – completely rightfully – that there is lots of sports gambling going on in states where it is illegal under both Federal and State law. Supporters say it is time to recognize that reality and to do something about it and the something to do about it would be to legalize it, regulate it and – – tax it.
I have not read the GAME Act itself as it was introduced so I do not know if it has some stupid provision buried in it. However, given what I have heard about it, I think it is a GREAT leap forward from PASPA.
And, by the way, there is another aspect of “law enforcement” that the GAME Act needs to clarify by definition. Part of the “Federal crackdown” on gambling involves the use of a law from the 1960s and the application of that law to the Internet. That fact alone – to my mind – disqualifies the law from having any relevance or jurisdiction to the matter.
The major sports leagues – many of whom have financial stakes in Fantasy Sports websites – have been eerily silent on this news. My guess is that they want to see which way the wind is blowing before sticking their heads out of the foxholes…
Finally, Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times had a fantasy moment of his own and it was not completely wonderful:
“Heard the reports that MLB umpires will soon be miked up to explain replay decisions?
“Just woke up in a cold sweat: Dreamt the Yankees were playing the Red Sox, and Ed Hochuli was the crew chief.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………