The Stewart Adams Project

Quality Content for Quality People Who Appreciate Quality Content for Quality People

 

May 27, 2009

Quality

Posted at 8:36 am

We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements and promotions on a daily basis for all manner of services and products – most of which are a complete waste of our time and attention.  The general population views these ads but when faced with a decision on the store shelves inevitably go with the brand that is the cheapest.

On extremely rare occasions however, one comes across a product that is immensely excellent in both quality and usefulness.  It is in these cases that we become a little more picky and are even willing to pay more just to have that particular brand.  This phenomena could be based on the fact that the brand in question is quite literally better than all the others, for example:

Water Bottle Label copy ~ Stewart Adams’ Bottled Dihydrogen Monoxide ~

Conversely, the product may simply be less horrible than its competition, for example:

800px-Spam_with_cans~ Something Posing As Meat ~

 

So what does this mean for you, the consumer?  Quite bluntly, it means that you enjoy quality products because you are a quality person.  Sure, soap is soap, but if you are given a choice to spend a few extra dimes to get that ergonomically contoured bar…you jump at the chance. In fact, sometimes you don’t even need a reason – you save time and cut out the middle man by just assuming that if it’s more expensive it must be better. Today we salute you, Mr. I-don’t-care-how-much-more-it-costs-as-long-as-I-am-convinced-in-my-own-mind-that-it’s-better(or less worse)-Man.

StewartSig copy2

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May 13, 2009

Web Contest

Posted at 8:21 am

   It has become common place for websites to hold simple little contests as a means to increase readership, visits, comments, and overall interest in the site.  While The Stewart Adams Project would never stoop so low as to attempt to generate artificial interest for the sake of our beloved site’s hit counter…(%Bleep-bloop%)…holding a contest with a (singular) prize is a fun way for us to say thank you to you, dear reader for your laborious labors that you endure week after week. Here’s looking at you, kids.

   The Prize:

postcard

   The winner will receive their very own personalized “Tennis is Hard.” postcard in the mail complete with handwritten message and signed by Stewart himself! um…er, myself! This lovely postcard is suitable for framing and will make all your friends jealous when they see it mounted above your fireplace.  In all likelihood, this prize might could potentially be worth millions of dollars, maybe.  One day when the project has reached super stardom, this little piece of awesomeness will be worth- *cough* I mean priceless.  I am not just giving you a sweet pic of me with a humorous caption, I am giving you the gift of potential prosperity. 

   The Contest:

   Using the Comments section, explain in your own words why you want/need this prize and feel free to include photos or videos to help make your case.  Be as creative as humanly possible.  The best responses will be selected and prizes will be awarded.  All entries must be posted by 5/20/09 at 8:00 AM. Good providence!

StewartSig copy2

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May 6, 2009

Adverstising

Posted at 8:13 am

Let’s face it; there are all kinds of ridiculousnesses in advertising these days.  In an attempt to be witty, clever, shocking, and/or attention grabbing, companies come up with some of the dumbest abbreviations, slogans, and catch phrases ever to be conceived by man.   Let’s take a few moments to explore this world of advertising with some real world examples…

01.   BOGO – Originally this term was coined “Buy One Get One Free” which is simple and not hard to say.  Yet, someone thought it would be cute to abbreviate this into an acronym that doesn’t even include the entire term.   BOGO stands for “Buy One Get  One” the obvious clipping of the little detail of “free” means that BOGO could refer to little else than “You get what you pay for…if you buy one, you only get one.” Thus, the term should be BOGOF yet people in marketing are apparently not good at English and BOGO is used flippantly and incorrectly on newspaper inserts across the US. 

02.   Not understanding the difference between a Sequel and a Prequel – This one has come to my attention just recently with the upcoming release of the film “Angels and Demons.”  This film is based on a book written by Dan Brown that was written 3 years before his book “The Da Vinci Code.” Yet, the trailer for the film adaptation of Angels and Demons states that it is a sequel to The Da Vinci Code when it is in fact a prequel.  You’d think that a film studio’s marketing department would have done at least a little bit of research on their own movie’s source material before making such an obvious mistake…but they apparently didn’t.

03.   HDD – if you go to any electronics store and take a look at their digital video cameras you will notice many times that they have the letters HDD in large text in an extremely visible location on the camera itself.  In this case it is marketing genius on the part of the manufacturer and buyer retardation on the part of the consumer.  HDD does not mean High Definition Display….it means Hard Disk Drive meaning the video files are stored on an internal hard drive and are likely not in anywhere close to an HD resolution.  Yet, marketers sell tons of cameras by jumping on the HD bandwagon and making people think they’re getting something they’re not.

These are just a few examples (3 to be exact) of how advertising can be lame.  Comment if you know of any more.

Stewart

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