Month: December 2011

Choice Magazine’s latest commercial insults Maytag refrigerators

liligans What Pisses me off

I wonder why Choice magazine has decided to pick on a Maytag refrigerator as an example of poor quality?

In its latest television ad it shows a Maytag fridge as being responsible for melting ice cream. We have had one of those fridges for six years and have never had any problems with its ability to keep ice cream cold.

So I wonder why Choice has chosen to denigrate this brand?

Since we have been supporters of Choice for many years we searched our files to see if Maytag has ever been properly tested. As far as we can tell it has not figured in the past year. There were some problems with G.E and Maytag in 2008 but Choice has done no testing on Maytag since then

Is it because Maytag is expensive? Is it because it’s an American fridge?

Even if the name of the fridge is not explicitly shown any owner of a Maytag will recognise its appearance and be concerned about its quality.

Surely the producers of the Choice commercial could have shown a generic fridge that did not resemble a particular brand or used one that had scored poorly in their recent reviews!

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What does an Up To 90% Off Sale really mean?

liligans What Pisses me off

If you walk around the shopping districts in Melbourne you are struck by the plethora of stores that promise up to 70% and even 90% discount. Now I don’t mind 90% discount if that’s what the stores are delivering. But what really gets my goat is when the words “UP To” are stuck in front of the promised saving in small or feint letters.

It makes you feel that the stores think you are an idiot by including just one single item which is discounted by 90% while the rest of the sale gives much smaller discounts. Of course, I realise that it’s a come-on. It’s meant to bring you into the store, but it’s definitely counter-productive and it’s putting me off.

I now give those stores a miss because they annoy me. I really don’t appreciate being manipulated in this way. Wouldn’t it be preferable if they offered at least 30% off all the sale stock? At least that is ethical.

And I wonder if “Up To” can include zero? Isn’t zero part of “up to” or am I wrong?

And if only one item has to be discounted by the promised amount then why not then offer “UP To 100% OFF”? Surely this can be achieved by offering some dud product for free and then charging regular prices for the rest.

It’s as ridiculous as those ads that inform us of “UP To 32%” improvement in our complexion if we buy that miracle cream. Surely it can also mean that there was zero improvement.

Perhaps these cosmetic companies should actually disclose the proportion of bullshit in their advertising. If they did that, then the BS content would reach that magical 90%. Not Up To, but AT Least 90% and that’s a promise.

Do we care about gay marriage?

liligans Society

This morning I went to a current affairs discussion. We talked about the usual topics such as this weekend’s Labor Conference, selling uranium to India, the GFC, the Eurozone, the promised surplus by our federal treasurer, Wayne Swan, etc. etc. etc.

Then someone brought up the subject of legalising same-sex marriage and there was an interesting reaction to it. Nobody, but nobody, was interested in whether gays should be allowed to marry or not.

Quite frankly, my dear, we didn’t give a damn.

If they wanna get married, let them get married. It didn’t bother us one bit.

Perhaps it’s because we are older and wiser and we’ve learned that it has nothing to do with us anyhow. We have seen how marriage is no longer the genuine commitment that it was supposed to be. People get married, then they get fed up and then they either have affairs or they divorce. Or they live together without being married.

I’ve wondered why the gays want to get married at all and I think it’s because they need to be accepted by the rest of society. Which is understandable since they have not been accepted in the past and will probably always have problems with the Church.

So if they are allowed to marry they hope that they will be like us. This is quite ironic, in a way, because we as a society no longer value marriage. Been there, done that and wonder why anyone would want to be married.

Quite frankly, young women are attracted to weddings. They want a glamorous party with lots of tinsel and bling. All this fuss has nothing to do with the reality of the institution itself, of course. And when the party’s over they wonder what they got themselves into or grammatically speaking, into what they got themselves.

So good luck to the gays. Why not give them what they ask for?

Seriously though, I can envisage a time when the only people to get married will be gays. And so once again they will be a group apart. How ironic is that?