Things That Make You Say ....

For the past few days, I've had advertisements on my mind. I've seen a few while driving in my car that made me do a double take, and I've seen some on TV that make me wonder who is so dumb as to believe it? (Hopefully not the writers, but you never know.)

Let's start with those TV commercials. Have you ever noticed all those auto insurance customers that claim to save people all that money? Did you ever notice the way they phrase those savings? "Customers that switched saved an average of ...."

Um ... duh. If they didn't save, I doubt they would have switched. Now what would be really useful information is if they told us the average amount of non-savings of all the people who got quotes and didn't switch. That would be useful information, but probably it wouldn't be good advertising....

The rug commercial I heard last night just takes the cake, though. The voiceover promised that if Carpet Store couldn't beat the competition's price by 15%, you'd get the carpet free.

Uh ...

Okay ...

I hope no one thinks anyone is getting a free carpet from that place. I mean, what would you do if you were Carpet Store? Give a 15% discount or give it away?

More importantly, does anyone actually believe this stuff?

As far as advertisements seen through the car window, I thought you might appreciate these:

Near the Pennsylvania/Maryland border, heading north, there is a Nesquick Billboard (with the rabbit and everything) that says, "When life hands you lemons, make chocolate milk."

I'm not sure I want to think about that too much. It reminds me a little bit of pineapple pizza.

In Frederick, Maryland there is a Motel 6 with one of those announcement boards where the motel can put up things like, "Welcome Jones Wedding." This one said, "Love Chapel." That's all it said.

I'm thinking, is this a band? Did I suddenly end up in a Bermuda Triangle Vortex to Las Vegas? Has Maryland changed its marriage laws? Was the motel bought out by an embarrasingly overdone Poconos resort and is now sporting heart shaped hot tubs? I don't know what to make of this.

While I was driving home, I happened to catch the other side of the same sign at Motel 6. It said, "Bible Life Church Ministries." I think I know what that means. I think it means irony.