The price of the lunch special is always in motion.

What would you do if you were him.
Sitting in that diner, having just been served the lunch special, a reasonable $6.99

When, outside on that nice summer day, some lacks is changing the price. $16.99, $12.99, $24.99, $19.99, $32.99. The man, obviously in a pickle asks the waitress and she shrugs, "prices change".

He is eating as fast as he can, lest he will have to do dishes to pay for the meal. (they don't accept credit cards it seems).

Beyond the obvious; if the price did change, it would be the price that I ordered it that you would be paying.

Direct Energy's simple and pointless commercial is about the price of natural gas rising 103% over five years.

The food in question went up 372% in about 20 seconds, vs. 103% over 5 years.
That's roughly an exaggeration factor of 28,471,186. (Yes, I did the math)

When you get $20 out of those independent ATM's and they charge you $1.50, (or 7.5% of your money), you would have to lose that 7.5% 220 times to get down to their illustrated gouging.

While their quoted 103% over 5 years is shocking, what do you think their CEOs were making.
CEOs typically have a lower salary, but huge benefits. What has his/her salary gone up in the last 5 years.
(There was some fine print on the bottom, but it was too quick to read. Something about most of the benefit being in the first year, then they screw you the next 4)

A few years ago when I cared about these sorts of things, I saw that the CEO of (either) BMO or BNS, got a $26 million dollar bonus. I looked up his salary and it was merely $455,000 a year.

That's a bonus of 5700% more than his annual salary.

Now, as good as I am at my job, my bonus structure seems to work like this. You take one of 3 levels, 2.5%, 5% or 7.5% (we are at 5% this year), multiply it by how you did (1.3x is the max, 0 is the min). And this year, since I started late, they will cut it by 16% (prorated). So, he gets 5700%, and I get 5.4%.

I am (not yet) a CEO, but if I were, I don't know if I would feel comfortable with a 5700% bonus over salary when people are out there trying to find ways to justify a 1.2% raise that doesn't even cover inflation.

Maybe they don't need to sleep at night, not sure.

What I do know is that the ship moves across the ocean a lot faster if it's missing the captain and not the crew.
(I like that, consider it copyrighted)


The last thing to consider as your intelligence is being insulted by this commercial or when those people come to your door offering to solve all your problems.

Resellers (for gas, phone, anyone) are like wholesalers. They offer no real service except being able to buy in bulk.
They are making money out of (essentially nothing).
They don't collect the gas, they don't process the gas, they don't even deliver the gas.
The same company does all that, they simply force the government to get the utility to sell to them in bulk (in the name of competition), then give it to you at an inflated price.

The difference is accumulated in earnings and salaries and bonuses for that super fantastic CEO who will score a nice bonus.

Maybe the CEO of direct energy can afford to flip the bill for that guy's lunch.

We are in the final stretches of the what is, annually, the biggest source of advertising dollars, the Super Bowl.

A mere 10 days away and those 30 second - $2 million+ ads will be in full swing. Ads that spend money to convince you to try their products. We don't see a lot of the 'good' ones in Canada, but the ones I have seen gives me the reaction of "ok, so what". Mind you, I don't watch football and won't watch the game since I am not in the running for any money in my football playoff pool.

How many items extra need to be sold to justify one or more Superbowl commercials?

I hope this one doesn't make it. Taco Bell featuring Carmen Electra.

2 Guys and a girl are enjoying some quality Taco Bell food product. Some double beef burito for $1.99.
The couple didn't believe the other guy that these quality double beef was only $1.99.
Then they bring up the 'lie' that he said before that he dated Carmen Electra (who hasn't, right?), and he corrects them, saying not only did he date her, but he dumped her too.

At the end of the ad, there's a banging at the patio door and it's Carmen Electra, begging him to take her back.

Now, I don't know the price tag for someone like Carmen Electra to appear in a commercial, but at least the product is right on the money.

After all, with the myriad of things that go into a Taco Bell product, if I was to personify that Burito (Or whatever) Carmen Electra would probably be the ideal person.

After all, we have no idea what's been inside Carmen either, so she's the human version of mystery meat.

I heard a joke on the radio the other day that I thought was pretty funny.

Since it's not age appropriate for anyone at home, I thought I would share it with you.

Part of the patrol route for this officer is driving by a popular 'make-out' hill.
On patrol one night, just after 11:30pm, he spots 7 cars, 6 of them with foggy windows and shaking gently. He approaches the one car that isn't moving and foggy and gets out of his patrol car. There are two people in the car, a guy in the front seat, reading a book and a girl in the back seat doing some knitting.

He taps on the window and the guy rolls it down. The officer says "What are you doing up here". The guy replies that he is reading and his girlfriend is knitting.
The officer asks the guy how old he is. "25 Sir", replied the guy. "And what about the young lady in the back seat, how old is she". The guy looks at his watch and says "well, she's 18 in about 15 minutes"

Not crazy about the age difference in the joke, but you get the drift.
Now, it's possible if this young man were say 20, he may be enticed by the great new "Canadian Armed Forces" commercials that are on TV these days.
Search and rescue, protecting freedoms, peacekeeping, they have it all. Oh, what a glorious life it must be.

All the soldiers in the ads are clean, seemingly well armed and well protected. They are even seen helping a middle-eastern women into a shelter.
Oh how great it must be to serve for the defense of your country.

OOPS. When were we last attacked at our borders? Let's see, no, that was the middle east. Going back, no, that was in Vietnam, Korea. WWII was more over in Europe, I did hear some blurb about something happening in the US, but I think it was one of those remote states, like Hawaii. Hmm, WWI? Maybe. You know what, I am not sure. But I don't think it was after WWI. (which ironically, they never called WWI until they found a better more deadly sequel)

The Canadian Armed forces commercial lack a few important details. No suicide bombers were shown blowing up check points. No engineers that were put into service as land mine checkers. There was ABSOLUTELY no mention of possibly being hit by friendly fire, or say, a friendly missile.

We didn't even see any evidence that you get to beat, rape and even murder people that look like they could do you harm, if the circumstances were right.

They didn't mention the nice vinyl body bag that you could be carried home in, no pictures of your newly widowed wife either.



While I am anti-war, I understand we should have an armed forces for DEFENSE of our country. The worst attacks on Canada come from within, with weapons supplied a bit south of here.

But everything the Canadian Military is engaged in is offensive. Not even our offense, someone else's.

But, we are fighting overseas, so we don't have to fight here, right?
Well, no, we are fighting overseas because of (stop me if you have heard this) US Foreign policy.

Now, the policy seems to be summed up like this. We will do what we want, when we want to and no one can stop us.

The great catalyst, 9/11, allowed some moron to (somehow) look good and stay in power for 6 years, doing absolutely nothing for his country.
September 11th was not an action against freedom, democracy or the US, it was a reaction to American Foreign Policy. A reaction to the flow of weapons to these people to fight someone else's battle, then the subsequent stabbing in the back of the US government and then, ironic as it may seem, the people they supplied with weapons get angry.

So, we try to recruit here.
And, instead of filling our ships with fuel to actually move, supply troops with training and equipment to safe guard them, so they can safeguard us (that's us, not U.S.), they put money into advertising so they can attract a new group of suckers, er, soldiers.

You fight for freedom, but once you sign on the dotted line, you have lost your freedom. If you don't agree with your mission, too bad. You can't choose not to fight. If you aren't trained or equipped for certain duty, too bad.



"Join the Canadian Armed Forces" a message from the Government of Canada, funeral homes everywhere and BodyBag Inc, the official supplier to the Canadian Armed Forces.

Best advertising is word of mouth?

Have you ever heard this saying? I think it's true, I am much more inclined to go to a store/service location anything if one or more friends had positive and memorable experiences.

In fact, given my cynical nature, that experience even counteracts the harm that companies do themselves while putting out inane and expensive commercials. If you are putting a high named (and price) celebrity on TV and radio to sell your crap, I know I won't buy it because part of my cost is that celebrity's endorsement.

Along time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I was having problems with my car. A co-worker of mine, who lived in the same city as I suggested I go to Firestone to get it looked at. She has used them for years and they are fast, friendly and reasonably priced. As a woman, she didn't feel they embodied the typical 'we can make crap up to women' mentality.
I ended up taking my car there once, then twice, then many more times.
They once replaced a starter motor for me because they felt it was likely the issue. It wasn't. So, they took it out, put back in mine and DIDN'T charge me for that time.
I have recommended them to SO many people. Even the day-care van that my daughter rode in daily for 4 years was taken to them, that's how much trust I put in Darryl and the boys.

They have gotten so much more business by simply being honest with one lady.


Now, in 2002, I bought a 96 Saturn (I have never bought a new car and likely never will). So, I said to myself "This time, I am going to do the maintenance and all those necessary evils to keep this running safely". I had said that many times in the past, but only now, am I keeping my word.

I was on the way to Yorkdale mall this past Saturday and my 'check engine soon' like was on all the way there. It was still on after I left and all the way home.

I tried the standard non-mechanic things. I tapped the panel where the light was, just in case it wanted attention. I stared out it, trying to will it off through the force. I ignored it, hoping it would get bored and turn off by itself.

Nothing worked. Well, that's my body of mechanical skills.
Saturn in Pickering closes their service area at 1pm on Saturdays and I stroll in at 12:40.
Greeted by a lovely young lady who informed me that they are done for the day and all the cars are out because they are painting. They couldn't work on it, but they could plug it into the computer and see what the reading is.

So, while the garage was ready to be painted, they pulled in my car.
It didn't look good. They couldn't work on it now of course, they could do it on Monday. But, I need my car on Monday. "Could you rent a car". Well, who wants to do that. So, they check on a loaner for me and they have one left.

This is where my extraordinary service comes in. Not that they lent a customer a loaner car, but they lent a loaner car to someone who merely bought a used car off of them. I hadn't been a life long customer and I will never buy a new car off of them, but I would likely buy another used car though.

So, they lent me a Saturn Vue Hybrid. It's a bigger car, which means I would never buy it. (I think it should be illegal to sell an SUV to anyone that can't show they have at least 3 children between 0-13 years old.) But it had heated seats to warm me in the winter and I was happy, just not as happy as I am with their service.

Now, even though I just got a call from Alex at Saturn who explained with the problem was, I can't relay it to you. Let's just say there was an acronym involved and leave it at that. (ILA - I love acronyms). Oh, and he called when he said he would and gave me the list of things that HAD to be done, vs. what could be done.

My last piece of word of mouth for the day is this.
While having all this room in this oversized vehicle, I went shopping on Sunday. On my way to shopping, I made a U-Turn in Pickering (where I live) to go to the old Knob Hill Farms building. It was a grocery store at one time, on a big piece of land, but for whatever reason, they never tore it down and in fact there's a flea market in there on weekends now.

But wait, Pickering has a flea market, no? No, they don't. The Pickering Market, who used to work out of the Metro East Trade Centre (which is now, let's see, a Wal-mart, McDonald's, Toy's R US, Sam's Club, etc, etc, etc) used to be a flea market, but it started to get overrun by retail vendors. It was no more about getting used items of nostalgic value, but having boat loads of retail shirts, at retail prices to sell. (that's because the price of a booth got up to about $250 a weekend). Only retail people could afford that.

When they moved to their new location, it got even worse. What few people they had selling flea market type things were ousted.

This one at Knob Hill Farms' old building (1630 Kingston Rd, Pickering), now named Knob Hill Market, brings back that feeling. The price for vendors is reasonable, so they don't need the retail edge. They had 3 or 4 vendors with Coca-Cola memorabilia, old barbies, some really nice antique furniture (including a GORGEOUS Roll-top desk with a dark finish).

There was some jewelry there, but I didn't look at those. I picked up two items, two toys for the child in me, but will definitely go back. It's not croweded now, but I am sure they will be when the frequenters of the "Mall without Walls" (the Pickering Markets) learn of it.

Canadian Rights and Freedoms.



Ok, this really doesn't have anything to do with Marketing, unless it's the marketing of hate, but here goes.

I got this email from my friend yesterday and we had a good little discussion.
I will paste it verbatim originally in bold (except for those <<>Subject: Editorial in Toronto Newspaper

Not being rude just being truthful
This is an editorial written in a Toronto newspaper.
He did quite a job; didn't he? Read on...

IMMIGRANTS, NOT Canadians MUST ADAPT.
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Canadians.
However...... the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct! " crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Canada. Our population is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of Canada being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Canadians.......we have our own culture, our own society, our own languages and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought FREEDOM.

We speak ENGLISH/FRENCH, those are our official languages. Not Spanish,
Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.

Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!
"We Stand On Guard For Thee" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan.. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women.......on Christian principles.............founded this nation..... and this is clearly documented.It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our
schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home.........because God is part of our culture.

We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle. But once you are done complaining....... whining...... and griping....... about our flag.......our pledge...... our national motto........or our way of life....I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other Great Canadian Freedom.......

THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.


Ok, let's hit this one right in the heart (or lack there of).
No Toronto paper would publish this, well, maybe the Sun I guess.

I have seen this with an Australian, UK and US spin, although I would put my money on this coming out of the US; mostly due to the mention of September 11th, the pledge, the flag (we aren't really big flag waivers) and the term 'right wing'.

If you are going to steal a fake editorial and Canadianize it, please, in future, replace Right Wing for Conserative Extremist. To most Canadians, Right Wing plays with the Centre on the ice. (GO MIKE BOSSY!!!!)

Political correctness has emerged from the shadows long before September 11th, 2001 and it's mostly due to being polite.
Sure, some people, especially in politics, spin it because they don't want to isolate a certain voting group, which is why it has POLITICAL in it.

So, let's assume it was meant for Canada, (But in our heads, we know it's the US).
"Our population is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants." Absolutely true, if anyone is truly from here, they are aboriginal.

"We adopted this motto because Christian men and women.......on Christian principles.............founded this nation" - This is absolutely false, as above would suggest, that Canada (in whatever form it was) was Christian before all those immigrants came to Canada. Immigrants like ahh, THE BRITISH, THE FRENCH. THE GERMANS, etc

You see, if people coming to Canada were to adapt, nobody would be Christian, would they. They would be Iroquois, Ojibwa, Cree, Huron or any other number of native Canadian tribes.
But the "Christians" that came to Canada didn't adapt, did they? No, they conquered. They forced their belief systems on the administration, the schools and the nations.

Now, when new immigrants come here and expect the same thing, some Conservative (extremist) is all ticked off that we expect them to follow rules that Christians didn't.

I am glad they don't have the Lord's Prayer in schools anymore. I would never put my hand on a bible to take an oath or testify in court.
I won't even go into a church to give blood, I wait for the clinic to come to somewhere sane.

If the government wants me to prove how much income I earn, why can't they prove the existence of God if it's going to be in my National Anthem.

Christians are an important part of Canadian culture, but ONLY because they are part of the population, not because of their beliefs. To ignore others means you would accept being ignored if the tables were turned.

Anyway, to all, prior to passing on these super fantastic important messages, take a look at sites like hoaxbusters.clac.org
It's a hoot to find all those things we have held dear to just part of someone with more time on their hands than stuff to do. Errr, I guess much like people who enjoy writing blogs??

I heard an ad on the radio.
"In Alberta, every senior gets 3.5 hours of critical care per day, it's the law. The Ontario government is holding meetings in four cities in the province to discuss this. We think it should be in all communities. Let's force the Ontario government to make it the law as well. Our Seniors deserve 3.5 hours of critical care per day"

Now, the ad in itself is not too bad, until the 'rub' comes. The commercial is paid for my CUPI, the union for public sector employees.
Hmm, makes you think that it's not the seniors they care about, but about creating more jobs for more hours, all getting union dues.

My issues with most big unions that cover a multitude of services is that it allows them more opportunity to affect the public with sympathy strikes.
If you aren't giving in to the demand of sanitation engineers, then we will have sympathy strikes for hospital workers, critical care providers.
There are some people that should not strike and job action or work to rule is just a fancy name for staying on the job, but really not contributing to anything.

Furthermore and I know I was get crap from my best friend who is SO PRO-UNION, it's incredible, but if you are in a union and you strike, I think the people affected by the strike should be able to sue.

I was lucky to never encounter a teacher's strike when I was in school and equally as lucky, Durham region teachers haven't gone on strike since I have had my daughter in the school system, but we were exposed to "Work to Rule".
They will grade tests and give marks, but no feedback, no teacher interviews. I am sure that the 40-60 teachers (at our school) and staff think that their issue is pretty important, but how do the 800+ students and the 1200 parents feel?.

Multiply those # by the people in Toronto and you may have 6000 people striking and complaining, but it will affect 150,000 others.

Those students affected in the York U strike a while back that lost (almost) a semester, may have had their tuition reimbursed, but so what.
For people that have pre-requisites, they may have lost a full year. But a full year of what, well of salary. And they didn't lose a full year of a crap salary, they effectively lost a full year of salary the year before they retire.
So, stay with me here. If I was to graduate in 2000, but a strike happened that delayed it to 2001. I lose salary x1 and in a year I gain x1, but lose x2, the following year I gain x2, but lose x3 and so on. So, when you add those up, what you end up with is the same total, less the final year of salary (assuming you retire at a constant age).

How much do you think a person, who has gained 36 years of experience is going to get in 2035, probably about $200,000. So, that's $200,000 a year (future dated mind you, probably 90k now) for what, eight to ten thousand students.
That's 720 - 900 million dollars to get what a $3 an hour raise? Teaching 12 hours a week is too much for you and hardly worth $85,000.
Talk to a public school teacher for a moment and see how they feel.

Concern like that is in the background, much like the people that continue in lanes that they know are ending just.. to.. squeeze.. those... extra......few..... metres.....out.......of........trafffffficccccc, phew.
Got ahead of one car, whew. I will now be at work 2/100ths of a second earlier.

When people don't look at the big picture, it's a knock on humanity.

I do sympathize with teachers, they are responsible for making our children's life and learning interesting and I don't want people that 'have to go into teaching' because they can't do anything else, I want teachers that are passionate about children, learning and development.

So, I say give them the money, along with nurses, police officers, fire fighters and let's save the money that we pay the superficial things, like car manufacturers.

It's hardly a surprise that GM can make 40 billion a year world wide, because car manufacturers have got people believing that you really need a new car every 3 or 4 years.

If you are not doing your job because you are dis-satisfied with your pay, do what I do, FIND A NEW JOB. If you think you can find a job for putting a screw on an truck that pays you $28 a hour, bonne chance.


Final word here, as seen on a T-Shirt of a very good friend. Her shirt reads "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance".

Such a powerful statement, I find my self constantly staring at it when she wears it. Although, in fairness, it may be for other reasons.

So, what was your charitable donation to Tiger Woods this Year?

It's a funny question in itself, Tiger Woods, the supreme golfer and marketing god gets his millions from golf and companies, not regular people, right?
Well, no, that's not right.

When companies spend multi-millions on celebrities to make the public think that their products are cool, it's the consumer that actually pays for it. You didn't think they did it out of the goodness of the hearts, did you?

The contract for Tiger Woods was in excess of $100 million over a number of years from Nike. Companies do not invest that kind of money to either lose money or break even. It's all about the marketing and all about selling their brand. But they absolutely do pass that cost onto the consumer.

In a double-dipping sort of way, along with the increased price of Nike Gear compared to other companies, you also get their logo. Their logo is what you are paying for since there is very little difference in the quality of the product.

Here's where the double dip comes in.

By wearing the Nike brand and it's 'swoosh' logo, you are also advertising for them, but unlike Tiger Woods, you are paying them.
You pay extra for that logo and that money goes to the company to recover the investment to pay the celebrity that got you (brainwashed anyone??) to buy the product in the first place.

Tiger makes money, the company makes money and you, well, you get a shirt. It's not like you are on the street, you are in your Nike shirt and Nike cap and you have your Nike bag and someone comes up to you and says "Hey, aren't you Tiger Woods". Why no, I am a middle aged white man with no hair. "But, you are wearing all Nike, just like Tiger"

Taken from MSNBC:
Woods was originally signed to a five-year contract with Buick in 1999. In 2002, Woods was involved in every aspect of the launch of Buick's Rendezvous SUV. This February, Buick re-signed Woods for another five years, in a deal reportedly worth $40 million.
Wray would not confirm the value of the contract, but says that Buick is happy with its investment, pointing out that more than 130,000 Rendezvous vehicles were sold in 2002 and 2003. "That exceeded our forecasts," he says. "It has to be in recognition of Tiger."

So, they put millions of dollars into Tiger's pocket and he pitches the Buick Rendezvous. Then people buy it enough to make Buick happy with the return on investment.
Nice...

But, in all fairness, Tiger 'seems' like a good guy to put the money into.

Charles Barkley would be on the other end of the spectrum.
His outright distaste for any responsibility on being a role model is disgusting. His attitude is 'I do what I please, I sign these contracts to make me money and I don't care if kids look up to me, that's their issue'. So, give me the money and I will have no social responsibility to the kids I influence.

Partially, he's right because athletes and movie stars shouldn't have that kind of influence on our kids, but if you are getting your son a Charles Barkley endorsed product, you are sending a signal to him and the company that you also don't care about their influence he has on your kids.

The last one of the day revolves around my personal favourite, gas stations.
In an effort to make you not think you are getting screwed (without getting dinner first anyway), Gas pumps are equipped with a chart showing the profit to be made by gas. This chart is mostly to set up the notion that it's taxes, not profit that raises fuel prices.

But there is this chunk in there that's called "Marketing", it's about 20%. That's the cost to convince you to go to Shell, instead of getting the exact same product for the exact same price at Esso. They sell you on the convenience store that is attached to most gas stations (where cigarettes and junk food allow them to make a killing on you, but still has no effect on your gas prices), they sell you on gas additives.

If no gas stations did any advertising (much like tobacco aren't allowed to anymore), would you favour one gas station over another? Probably not. You would do exactly what you do now, look for someone who has a lower price or is convenient for your location when you need it.

So, why do we, as the public, put up with such a large portion of the cost of gas going to pay for a message that only hurts you? Well, because no one makes a stink about it.

Sure, we all get those "let's all boycott shell on Thursday" emails and they are dumb.
The idea is dumb because of this.

1. One day never makes a difference
2. What if you were to find out that the company people wanted to boycott was actually initiated by the competition
3. Even if most people did that, creating a lineup at the other stations, there will always be a handful of people that have more money than time and couldn't care less about the price of gas (or they write it off for their company)

When I get those emails, I delete them. I say you will have a much greater impact if you NEVER buy something from the convenience arm of the stations.

"While prices are high, your concessions I will not buy" is my slogan and I have actually used that on people while paying for the gas.

What we should do is get our federal representative to ban gas company advertising like they do with tobacco. According to their chart, that should force the price needed to 'break even' down and either give us a break, or a new run of business into the chart making company. It's a win-win.

Dr. Bernstein's "Supervised" weight loss Program. (Lady, can you spare a nipple?)

I was actually on this program for four weeks a number of years ago. Money back guarantee (program compliance required) is their caveat.

I am a larger gentleman and have had issues with sleep apnea. So, off to Dr. Bernstein's I go.
I don't recall if there was a consultation fee, but the weekly fee was $100.00 cdn.

The "doctor" said because of my weight, they will put me on more calories than they normally put people on. So, I got 1100 calories a day. (they usually give people 750- 850).
I think what they do to justify their fee, which is essentially the charge for getting injections of synthetic B6 and B12 is this; They withhold natural B6 and B12 from your diet. Since you need these, they provide it, by injection, at a cost.

It's the equivalent of making tap water non-consumable, just to force you to buy bottled water.

Neither 750 nor 1100 calories is sufficient for an able bodied adult. (not that these would be allowed, but Big Mac's are listed as 540 calories on their website)

So, if you follow their diet, get their injections and don't lose weight, they claim they will give you your money back. However, how can one not lose weight on 750-1100 calories. Even Nicole Richie could lose weight on that program.

Neither the hostile doctor (I heard him actually yelling at patients) , the cost or the calorie count was the reason it didn't go beyond four weeks.

When I went in my last time, I mentioned that I was reading the maintenance program and didn't see milk.

The doctor responded with a snarky "Why would you want to drink milk anyway?"
Ahh, it tastes good, it goes with coffee or tea for some.
He said "No other animal drinks the milk of another animal" (Did he just call me an animal?).

I said, 'well, that's true, but women seem to object if I ask them for milk directly'

My inaugural post, hopefully not the last.

I work as an analyst for (currently) an insurance company. The thing about analysts is this, to be successful, you need to be critical. Being a team player means pointing out what's good and what's stupid about an idea, all the while, keeping your job.

Most times, the cynicism creeps into my personal life, and that along with a dry wit and sarcastic sense of humour means like people either absolutely love me or they don't, but there's rarely middle ground.

The concept of Anti-Marketing is to sift through the glitz and glamour of a concept and get to the root of the ask.

Working closely with marketing groups often, do you know their main mantra? "Don't try to market to yourself". This means, don't try to come up with an idea that is good enough to sell yourself, because regular people just aren't that smart.

So, if you look at ads or commercials and think they are just fluff, congrats, you could be in marketing. If you absolutely HAVE to have that product they are pushing, then, you don't belong in marketing, you belong in a marketing dream.

In Canada, they are still considering a national "DO NOT CALL" list. This list is being applauded by the public as it will reduce the # of calls while you are having dinner, in the bathroom or spending quality time with either loved ones or the television.

publicly, the "Do Not Call" list is also being sought by companies. They say they are looking forward to the list because all the people that aren't on the list WANT to hear about the weekly windows and doors deal.

The windows and door people are my favourite, because there are more companies offering this service than there are people in the world. I get about 2 calls a week just for this.

Hello?

Marcy: Hello, my name is Marcy and I am calling from Acme Windows and doors and...

Me: Wait, let me do this. You are in my area and servicing most of my neighbours (lucky them) and you want to know when it's convenient to come by and give me a no-obligation quote on new windows and doors. Of course I know that the no-obligation quote is good for six months, right?

Marcy: ahh, Yes sir, when would it be convenient to come by.

Me: Acme windows and doors, right?

Marcy: Yes, that's the companies name (not her companies name, as she works for a telemarketer)

Me: good, just wanted to write that down, for when I do need windows and doors, I will never use someone who has attempted to telemarket me.

Love the telemarketer, don't you?

In the company I work for, they script everything. There is a 180 page document on procedure which includes the script. The trouble is, customer's main problem with customer service is being too scripted, so instead of eliminating the script, they try to come up with a script that is more natural.

The reason to script is so that every customer is being treated like everyone else. Who here doesn't like that?