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Annoying companies
By adamg - 6/16/06 - 9:19 pm
The very pregnant Christonicle goes into the Macy's shoe department to get some shoes. A salesman gets her a pair, drops them at her feet, then leaves to go chat with co-workers.
Note to Macy's shoe salesmen: Ready to pop pregnant women can't easily bend down to pick up things.
By adamg - 6/4/06 - 10:16 pm
Jo explains why she needs a new car - NOW - and why she won't be buying one at Boch Honda (on the AUTOMILE).
By adamg - 6/2/06 - 9:46 am
WBUR theater critic Bill Marx reports that publicists for local plays have taken to trolling 'BUR blogs for favorable comments - which they then take out of context for use in ads:
... By identifying the quotes as coming from WBUR.org, the Huntington advertisements exploited an ambiguity -- the misleading implication is that WBUR's theater critic wrote those things about the production. ...
By adamg - 6/1/06 - 8:49 am
Just when Lawrence is feeling good about life in Fields Corner, along comes Clear Channel with a billboard that reminds him:
... [Y]ou still live in the hood, white boy. Good lookin' out Clear Channel!
By adamg - 5/30/06 - 8:17 pm
Martin Lieberman hates this new Newbury Street clothing store:
... If Boston magazine is looking for a new category for its annual "Best of" issue, might I suggest "Best Misuse of Prime Real Estate." ...
By adamg - 5/22/06 - 4:24 pm
When SassyGirl complains about a hair in her sandwich at Applebee's, the manager eyes her red locks and asks her to describe the hair:
Me: Well it was about an inch long...and curly...and BLACK. Neither of us has black hair.
Hubby: (Lifting his hat to show his receding hairline) I barely have ANY hair! (he laughs)
Manager: (unsmiling) Hmm. Well, that's very interesting, because all of our cooks are bald. (Looks at me expectantly)
Me: Well THAT doesn't make me feel any better about where THIS came from. ...
By adamg - 5/17/06 - 10:16 pm
Dan Kennedy wanted to upgrade to a Treo 650. But when he got to his local Verizon Wireless store, the saleswoman told him he had a choice: He could either pay at least $300 a year above the base fee for Internet service or he could hand over $60 a year extra to NOT get Internet service. He told her he'd take the third choice: He walked out the door.
By adamg - 5/17/06 - 2:02 pm
Rachele says that her house needs a lot of work (being built in 1865 and not well maintained and all). She reports that some contractors cannot deal with the fact that she's the one who will be making the hiring decisions and insist on meeting with both her and her husband:
By adamg - 5/10/06 - 10:19 pm
Unless you want to suffer through five cancelled service appointments and other annoyances, as described by MartiniPundit:
... We made another appointment for Saturday 1-3.
Nothing. I had called about 1:30 to confirm the appointment, but after 3pm passed, I called again. At this time, I was informed that the appointment had been cancelled at 1:03 nearly a half hour before I called and received confirmation that the appointment was on. ...
By adamg - 5/9/06 - 10:34 pm
The other day, Tim and Susan bought some formula for their newborn, Greg, at their local Walgreens. When Greg started vomiting, they checked the formula and discovered it was past its expiration date. The couple complained to the state Department of Public Health, which is now investigating.
By adamg - 4/27/06 - 7:57 am
Forget the Dunkin' Donuts ads. Margalit wishes, just once, she could turn on her TV at night without seeing Ernie Boch Jr.
... His raspy voice, his stupid 4-wheel drive commercials where he's screaming about off-roading on a straight sanded dirt road, his constant screaming... this is one annoying guy. A guy that happens to own late night airtime on tv, no matter what you're watching.
Please Ernie, SHUT UP. ...
By adamg - 4/23/06 - 2:57 pm
David Weinberger follows up this Globe article about how Cingular refuses to prove its fewest-dropped-calls claim with his own Cingular experiences:
... My Cingular phone only works if I actually climb a Cingular antenna tower, of which there seem to be a total of nine in the continental United States. Fortunately, the towers are only 11 inches tall.
By damnright - 4/14/06 - 7:54 am
Has anyone heard this ad on the radio? It is a recruitment for 'mystery shoppers'. It just sounds like a scam to me.
The announcer sets up the premise that retail companies are in desperate need of people to be their eyes and ears at the marketplace. The implication is that you 'get paid to shop'.
Already I am suspicious. Most of us are aware that sometimes retail businesses will use 'plants' to audit themselves. The perception is to improve customer service. Can it get more vague than that?
The ad most likely is aimed to appeal to younger people. The lure is to have a job that is as simple as , well, shopping. My God, someone must think, I can do THAT. So far so good, until...
By adamg - 4/10/06 - 5:50 pm
Jen learns the hard way not to trust the Web: She believes Naked Fish's Web site when it says it has a restaurant near Haymarket, only to learn when she gets there in advance of some friends that they've closed that location (McCormick & Schmick's to the rescue). She's annoyed enough to write the company, which apologizes, but says nothing about removing the location from its Web site (it's still listed as of 5:50 p.m.
By mdhilliard - 4/8/06 - 8:01 pm
discover card has a "special" offer. transfer your credit card balance for a .9% interest rate. the only requirement is that one makes two purchases each billing period. the purchases can be for a cup of coffee, etc. what is not disclosed in laymen's terms is that any payments one makes go to the balance transfer even when one pays well over the minimum payment due each billing period. the interest rate on purchases is 24+%! so one can end up paying a finance charge that at a minimum is twice as much as the purchase one has made and rising every month!! beware!!!
By adamg - 4/6/06 - 9:46 am
You know, if there's one thing my daughter doesn't get enough of, it's advertising. Why, she must spend 30 minutes each day on a school bus with nothing to do but look out the window or talk to other students.
A job posting on Boston Craigslist led me to Bus Radio of Needham, which hopes to end this problem. Starting this fall, the company will beam "a national radio program" at students in school buses in participating school districts.
By adamg - 4/4/06 - 9:46 pm
Amy's settling down for some good ol' Red Sox baseball when that commercial comes on again. You know the one: The one where there's a lot, a lot of culture in Philadelphia, cheese steak, the Liberty Bell, cheese steak and it's like a baby New York and you just want to tear your ears off by the time it's done.
Say it isn't so! Just don't let the Foxwoods leprechan ad be back. PLEASE.
Or the Giant Glass commercial with the air-guitar-playing construction guy.
Ezra Ball has a one-word solution: Tivo:
By adamg - 3/31/06 - 10:20 am
On Life According to Carrie, Carrie informs Citibank that after five phone calls in one week trying to get her to sign up for a new credit card, the next time somebody calls, she will hunt them down and rip their lungs out:
Me: (rudely) "What do you want?"
Citibank Bitch: "We are calling to see if you are interested in the new Citibank Signature Credit Card..."
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