h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember a program about beauty products and they were saying things like hiloronic acid did have the effect described, but the quantitys required had other side effects that no-one was prepared to risk, so the active quantitys in the products are so small as to be effectivly useless and its all just a marketing ploy and play on words along the lines of

X product does this

our cream contains X product

buy our cream.....

at no time do they outright say

our product does this?????

Ah, the good old 'highlyironic acid'.

>active quantitys in the products are so small as to be effectivly useless<

That'll be homeopathy then. That's seems to market quite well...

Being in the middle of reading "Bad Science" ... the author Dr Ben Goldacre states that almost all beauty creams need to hydrate the skin, and Vaseline will do it very well although you want to eliminate the greasiness. A tub of Hydrobase, £10 for half-a-litre will do the job well enough.

Two ads annoying me just now.

The first is a mobile phone ad with a woman using the phone, surrounded by a lot of people in orange robes forming concentric circles away from her - it looked like they were in the middle of a big orange. I had no doubt whose ad I was watching until right at the end when it was revealed that the phone company was the oxygen one, not the citrus fruit one. Seems a bit stupid - surely someone noticed?

The other is the radio ad for confused.com. The guy says "I just typed "confused.com" into a search engine and..." wtf? Why wouldn't he just type it into the address bar? No wonder he's confused about car insurance.

Deb

The ad for Simplyhealth (an insurance company) who state they formed 40 yrs ago "because the NHS didn't exist back then". So their creation date of 1948 is untrue?

Or your advert is fraudulent in its claim?

Which sounds far more likely.

Oh and the advert for Windows 7 with the girl in the back of the taxi who can't be much older than 20 who claims she "invented the task bar" for Windows 7.

That'll be the taskbar thats been there since Windows 95 was invented when you were about 14 then?

14? Are you using the same math as Simplyhealth ?

'loose' math, it's a new theoretical branch of mathematics that could prove the existence of god AND dinosaurs.

Anyone else annoyed by the 'Apocolypse Now' British Gas advert?

I love the smell of Napalm in the Morning, hmmm

>> The ad for Simplyhealth (an insurance company) who state they formed 40 yrs ago "because the NHS didn't exist back then". So their creation date of 1948 is untrue? <<

The advert starts "Almost 140 years ago..."

Although wiki gives their formation as 1922, so I think they're stretching the truth there a bit.

RF

So you´ll believe Wikipedia over an ad made by the company themselves?

OK, here goes...

Simplyhealth was formed from a company formerly known as HSA, which was incorporated in 1922. However, HSA previously took over other companies, and merged with them, one of which may have a history going back 140 years. But it's stretching the truth a bit to believe that the company currently incorporated as Simplyhealth has been in existence for 140 years.

If I form a limited company today, Reddyfreddy Ltd, and take over Barclays Bank, can I reasonably claim that my company's history stretches back to the 17th century?

RF

I think if you called your company Booty-takers you could have a fair case....

if your called it Bizarre Bonuses something more recent might be better

On a flyer, in everybody's mailbox

Here's your exclusive invitation to
the sale everybody waits for

Monster Sale

how many monsters were on sale and what type were they????

There is an advert for ScS sofas at the moment with a guy dressed up in a tuxedo in the corner of the screen who has to point and grin at every deal they announce.

Not really advertising stupidity but bod it's irritating me. The guy has got to be the worst advertising actor ever - and he doesn't even say anything. Didn't they realise just how cheesy and spivvy he comes across. I hope he got well paid for the advert as his mates must be mercilessly ribbing him for looking like the biggest ponce on telly in that ad.

I agree the man on the ScS ad is irritating. What's worse is that it's latched on to the popularity of Strictly Come Dancing, with the offers of 'Strictly £10'. I switch channels when that ad comes on.

You know, I hadn't even noticed that. Must be because I'd rather eat my own poo than watch anything related to dancing

Must be because I'd rather eat my own poo <<<<<Silly missing a market opportunity, for a unique food with lots of roughage