🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <thardisonNOSPAM-1211981145320001@user-
38lc7b6.dialup.mindspring.com>, thardisonNOSPAM@mindspring.com says...

>    A friend of mine keeps asking about the proliferation of these
> 10-10-321 phone ads being shilled by George "I'd Never Sell My Street
> Cred" Carlin and James Garner and all the rest of them -- "Don't the
> advertisers know how stupid these things are? How *angry* they make us to
> see these icons selling out for ad bucks when they should be acting for a
> living?"
>    And I point out that a BILLION $ INDUSTRY like long distance sales only
> needs ten lousy percent of the pot and some upstart company out there in a
> faceless stripmall in Iowa suddenly has a HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS to play
> with. They may not have even exxisted a month ago and now they're a major
> player in the industry. You wave serious money under someone's nose like
> that and Sir Laurence Olivier will sell you a pastel-colored Polaroid
> camera. As they say on "Millenium" -- "This is who we are."

Yes. "'Tis sad, 'tis true...." I stopped watching TV back in August, in 
part because of disgust of marketing practices and targeting of TV shows. 
The only redeeming thing about cable is the History channel. I'm amazed 
at how happier I am with life since I've stopped watching TV. I write and 
read instead of zoning out on the boob tube. However, I'm re-reading the 
Wheel of Time series, so I would be hard pressed to say my time is spent 
any more productively than by watching TV. =) 

And the sad thing is that doing commercials is so derned *easy*. The 
effort-to-earnings ratio is so much higher for doing 30 second spots 
than, say, for Carlin doing a stand-up tour, or Sir LO performing on 
stage or screen. "So, all I have to do is say I like your product for 
thirty seconds and you'll give me $250,000? And since I'm a big name 
person you give me a cut of the earnings generated by my commercial? 
What's the catch? Am I on Candid Camera?"

I must admit, given the chance, *I'd* do a commercial for a small 
percentage of that. My soul is easily purchased. And you?

michael