TV Adverts Don't Advertise

When it comes to adverts these days, I always point to the Mr Plough episode of The Simpsons, when Homer pays for an ad, but when it airs on TV, Bart asks him "Was that your ad?" and Homer's response it "I don't know!" Adverts are really like this these days. The advert spends half its time confusing you, and then throws a product at you at the end. I often find myself seeing an ad for the second time and asking "what was this advert for again?"

I think the jingle system worked better - get a catchy song in your head, and it makes you remember the product. These days, even if an advert is visually good, it means nothing if the audience don't know what they should be buying. Just seems like we can't advertise as well as we used to.

The Disadvantage of Having the Desired Figure

I'm always really bad at clothes shopping. Not only am I ridiculously picky, but even when I find something I like it always ends up looking awful on me. I think I've figured out why. A lot of clothes are designed to replicate the hourglass figure, but I'm pretty close to an hourglass, so I often find that many clothes exaggerate features that I already have, and end up looking ridiculous. It's funny that we have this image of the desired figure, and clothing companies try to let women look like they have this figure, but ignore those who are already hourglasses. What is considered the 'desired' figure is in fact a disadvantage, as it's that much harder to find clothes that don't look stupid on you. I don't think this is the sole reason I have trouble finding clothes, but it's an interesting thought.

Christmas and the Commercial

Many people hate Christmas, considering it to be a time of the year used by companies to make money. I'm not denying that companies do this - Christmas is one of those times where companies will try to sell as much as possible, but it's down to us to choose what we should and shouldn't buy. I think Christmas runs deeper than the shallow products you find in shops. When you search and find that perfect gift for someone, you feel really good for it. I said last year that I enjoy giving presents more than receiving them, and I still feel that way. Giving the right gift is really rewarding, but I don't think it is found in a lot of the 'cash in' gift products that the shops sell. For me, Christmas is a time of year when I go home to see my family, and there's nothing commercial about that. I think we often have to ask ourselves; do we hate Christmas or do we hate commercialism? Ultimately, Christmas is whatever we make of it. Yes, companies try to cash in on the holiday, but that doesn't take away all the wonderful things that Christmas stands for.

Ironic, isn't it? Is it?

Everyone has those little things that annoy them. One of my biggest peeves is the misuse of the word ironic. Despite my annoyance at the misuse of the word, I do find it interesting how it has been taken to mean something else, without any revisions to the dictionary. Irony occurs when there is a contrast between the surface meaning and the underlying meaning. Verbal irony is a conflict between what is said and what is meant, situational irony is a conflict between what is intended and what actually happens, and dramatic irony is a conflict between what is said and what the audience knows to be true. Somewhere along the line, the word ironic has been taken to mean a strange coincidence or an unfortunate circumstance, or is sometimes just used in an attempt to inject philosophy into a situation. Generally, I would say that if something is ironic, it doesn't need to be said, and should be interpreted as irony by its audience. The second someone says that something is ironic, I will immediately start picking holes in it, and be sure that it really is irony. I always wonder how the misuse came about though. It's not as if we set out to deliberately misuse a term, it's just become so engrained in our minds that 'ironic' can mean a strange coincidence, that unless we really actively go looking for the definition, we will be stuck using it for the wrong meaning. We can't go looking up every word in the dictionary before we use it, so all we can do is pay attention if we realise we are misusing a word.

Little tidbit, this was originally going to be a Critical Angle post, but I decided that it was dragging too much and not really going anywhere with the examples I included, so would work better as a shorter Morning Muse with just the main argument.

It'll bring in new people, who cares about everyone else?

It seems that some companies are so concerned with getting new customers or new fans that they completely dismiss their current ones. I was thinking about this the other day when a friend of mine was talking to me about DC Comics doing a reboot of all their series in an effort to draw in new fans, who wouldn't be confused by all the context that might otherwise be needed to fully understand the story. As someone who does not actively read western comics, I don't think DC starting all their comics over would change my opinion. I have a lot of respect for western comics as a medium, but I don't think I would ever do more than occasionally read something that was shoved under my nose. I'm guessing there are many other people with the same opinion. So all they would really be doing is annoying the people who are already giving them money, and potentially losing customers.

It kinda reminds me of the music centre where I used to take violin lessons. For a while the company offered a lot of discounts to its existing customers, such as money off lessons if you were doing more than one thing (very good for a family with four children all playing an instrument) so it was really helpful to those who wanted to do more than one thing with the music centre. Then there was a management change and they decided that it would be better to get rid of all these discounts and instead offer reduced rates to new customers. So they financially screw over their existing members to offer cheaper prices to new members who are likely to stop paying for lessons once the price goes up. For the record, I think things have improved since then, but I remember it really annoying me at the time.

It just seems like a really bad business practice to me, and you would think that companies would want to think these things through.

Actor Association

Sometimes, an actor's previous role can have an impact on another role. As an example, last year I was in a production of 'You're a Good Man Charlie Brown', and this year we are doing a different show with a lot of the same people. There is one song in this show that I find particularly chilling, and part of this is because the guy singing it previously played Snoopy. When you think of a person in one role, and they play another role that drastically contrasts with it, it can actually add to the effect.

Explainations

Wow. It's been a while, hasn't it? I feel I should probably explain myself, since I kinda stopped posting without any kind of warning. Basically, I was starting to find it really hard to write anything for this blog, I felt I was forcing myself, and the theory was that the time spent trying to come up with a Morning Muse could be better spent on other writing. Also, it was around the time that I got a new job, and was working pretty much non-stop as I was training for my new job while working out my notice from my old one. That didn't leave much time for these blog posts.

I don't want to completely abandon this blog, since I did enjoy writing a lot of my muses, but I don't want to pressure myself into writing every day. So what I'll most likely do is try to post something as often as possible, but not force myself if nothing comes to my head. I said at the beginning that I would see if I could keep it up, and the answer is no, but that doesn't mean that I can't still write on this blog on a regular basis.