|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
Heard or seen any stupid/idiotic/ridiculous ads lately? My favorite idiotic ad campaign is the one Taco Bell used last summer to promote the fact that they were open late at night: It's late. Eat more.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I read about a Holiday Inn that had, on its sign out front,
"Have your next affair here".
(Note: These and many other hotels and motels have conference rooms that they rent to groups.)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Saw a hand-written sign at a car sales in some whistle-stop in the Oklahoma Panhandle the other day which read "Cheap cars. Be quick. They won't last". Not sure it was an English error actually. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
"They won't last".
Dear CK: that company is obviously entirely ethical, and practices truth in advertising.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Not sure it was an English error actually.Good eye, CK! You do have a way of seeing the humor in things. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
A sign spotted at a quick-food restaurant with gas pumps out front.
Eat Here
Get Gas
(For those not familiar with US idioms -- Gas = Petrol also Gas = heartburn)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
The famous sign outside a London transport caf� just after the war read,
"EAT DIRT CHEAP AT JOE'S CAFE"
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Speaking of which and resurrecting a discussion in an old thread, I've been seeing those damned Burma Shave adverts all over since I've been in the States.
Does the firm still exist? If not, it must be one of the few instances where the advertising is mightier than the product or the firm itself!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear CK: I found a site on Internet about Burma Shave's history. It was owned by a family named Odell.
In 1963 the Odell Family sold their company to Philip Morris, Inc.
So Philip Morris, Inc. is too stingy to remove signs.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Philip Morris, Inc. is too stingy to remove signs
These signs required maintenance. See the book The Verse by the Side of the Road : The Story of the Burma-Shave Signs and Jingles by Frank Rowsome, Jr. These things were a cultural icon. They now remind us of a time when things were slower and which we imagine to have been better days (conveniently forgetting all the things that made them the Bad Old Days, a subject which has already been covered here). I would suspect that the land owners, mostly farmers, keep the signs up themselves. The roads that CapK is following, as any of us who have been following his excellent travelog will attest, are roads less traveled now that we have the Interstates. The advertising value of the signs, even if the product does still exist, is minimal, but their nostalgia value is high.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,809
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
982
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
