Jeeesh....this isn't very classy, is it?

Tom Sims, Snowboarding innovator and entrepreneur, has been dead for two years.  Maybe his family, not satisfied with their take in the will, decided to sell old home movies for a few bucks?  However this car company got them, this just doesn't feel right at all.

Hey look, a reason to wake up tomorrow

I still think that cell phones represent the ultimate debasement of technology, but e-cigarettes have to be running a close second.   Check out this ad- we've reached a new Renaissance here, folks.  Tomorrow is going to be great- because now you can stick this new thing in your pathetic addicted mouth and suck away on something that Isn't Exactly A Cigarette but you can bet contains all kinds of harmful junk our wonderful FDA will reveal to us in another generation or two- when e-cig addicts can be counted in the millions, of course.

Or, you could just see your doctor and take steps to quit your stupid, juvenile, disgusting, life-shortening and healthcare cost-inflating habit.  Morons.

Isn't the tagline "Do More" the ultimate in false advertising?

First, I don't want to be mean- but whatever that squealing weird thing is sitting next to the guy on the couch, man it's annoying.  I mean, I guess it's a female of the human species, but what the hell?  Is she eight, or fourteen, or thirty?  What the hell is going on with her face and her voice?  This is beyond horrifying.

Ok, now on to the rest of this ad- naturally, it takes place in a virtual palace of a living room, but that's just par for the course in TV land.  That's not my major issue- I could create an entire blog dedicated to the unrealistically massive houses everyone in commercials seems to occupy.  No, it's more the guy's attitude- that he's doing Whatever The Hell That Is some kind of favor by giving her the opportunity to talk, text, tweet, download all she wants without limits because Hey After All That's What Life Is For, Right?

I really think that the message of this ad is supposed to be "this is what an awesome parent does"* I think it's more like "this is what an idiot who has no interest in being a parent but who wants his offspring to leave him alone" does.  Since when is feeding a loved one's addiction a good thing?  Oh yeah- when the addiction is a cell phone and can be fed with Unlimited Data Plan deals.

Again- can someone PLEASE explain to me why this is attractive to anyone?  I'd especially like to hear from parents- why is this a good idea?  Are you people all insane, or what?

*If one is the parent of a freakish adult/child hybrid thing, perhaps? Seriously, What IS that?

A new triumph in marketing- Viruses you actually have to order and have shipped to your home via snail mail!

Ok, I'll admit two things straight out- first, that when I first saw this commercial, I was sure that it was a brilliantly done gag.  I mean, come on- there are a thousand "download this thing which will quickly convince you that your computer is about to explode it has so many viruses, and it will replace those viruses with OUR viruses" services- MyCleanPC, PCMatic, MyFasterPC, etc. (which may or may not be the same product under different names.)  Who would actually respond to a slow internet connection by ordering this device and then waiting for it to show up in the mail?  Oh, right- really old people who like to be ripped off by operators instead of impersonal buttons and who find the idea of "downloading" really confusing and frightening.

Second- I can't find any complaints about this particular device, which seems to be nothing more than a Magic USB* which does exactly what the downloadable things do....without installing viruses and cookies which can't be removed ever?  Maybe it's because it's a new thing that nobody has purchased and been screwed by yet?  Maybe it's legit?  (I kind of seriously doubt this, because if it IS legit, it seems to me that it would be a huge seller at Best Buy or any number of stores that sell computers- heck, Dell could make a bundle selling them off their site....)

*Why didn't they just call it MagicUSB?  Old people love Magic- check out the popularity of Copper Bracelets and Angel Coins.  Maybe it's the USB part?  Then just call it Magic Thing You Plug Into The Side Of The Computer.  Gotta know your audience.

Can someone please beat the H&R Block guy to death with his own unjustified smug?

I really don't want to see this creep on my television any more.  Several years of "come and get your money" is more than enough for me, really.

I wonder how many people who watch these commercials realize that when you get a refund, it means you overpaid, not that you won some f--ing lottery or that every spring the government decides to hand out wads of cash to those smart enough to hire H&R Block to file for them.  If this jackass with his stupid bow tie was honest, he'd be telling us to set up our deductions correctly so we got our money every paycheck, not once a year.  Instead it's "you've got a billion dollars waiting for you, America, so come and get it before Santa's magic sack is empty."  Ugh.

Oh, and the "your money is calling to you" bit?  Gross.  It's money.  It can buy stuff, it can buy people, it can buy momentary pleasure.  If it could buy happiness, we'd make even less than we do now, because those who possess it would hoard it and call us unworthy of it ( I mean, even more than they do now.)    It's not singing some damn siren song to anyone but the most disgustingly shallow knobs out there, and I don't give a damn about them.

Meanwhile, ETS?  Any time you want to send that W-2 would be just great, because I do have a small refund coming.  It's not a billion dollars, but I won't sneeze at it, either.

Oh Seriously- Bite Me, CTU

Look, I've got nothing against Online Courses and Online Colleges.  I get that they offer some level of educational opportunity for people who can't afford "the traditional route," or who already hold down jobs and simply do not have the time for classes on campus.  Fine.

But pompous schmuck narrator?  Don't tell me I was some kind of Go Along With The Crowd zombie because I went to a traditional college for four years and sat in classrooms and made friends and had actual face to face conversations with professors and went out for beers afterwards to discuss class material and plan study strategies.*  Don't try to convince me that I was a sheep who let "the system" get "control" over my educational experience and "run" the four years I spent at that school.  Because you are just coming off as a jealous punk jackass who is trying to make a virtue out of being unable to deal with the discipline required by a structured curriculum.  I don't admire you one bit.

Run away, run away, lock yourself in your bedroom and set your own schedule, if you've got the skills to do it and stick with it.  When you apply for your "career" (I suggest you ditch the attitude first) good luck competing with the people who have already demonstrated a willingness to adapt to a challenging educational structure they couldn't mold in their own comfy image.  Be ready to explain to the guy who is interviewing you about how "traditional" college "wasn't for you" because you like to "work at your own pace."  That will go over great, Mr. Rebel.

So good luck "at" Colorado Technical University.com.  I'm sure it will leave you with warm memories of all the chat rooms and the time Pikertroll67 made that awesome point and stumped the "professor."  And that other time you OD'd on Red Bull when you realized that all the school's flexibility couldn't get you out of attaching that essay and getting it into the class's Shared File by midnight.  Like Animal House and Back to School wrapped into one, wasn't it, you scruffy pompous loser?

*I spent every other Thursday night my Sophomore year at my girlfriend's house studying for the bimonthly Anthropology test.  Yeah, that would have been much more fun online.   But we had to deal with 1980s technology, so what could we do?

Think "tuck your baby in from a phone booth" sounds inviting? YOU WILL

Think that you'll ever be permanently attached to your work, on call 24/7 via your "cellular phone?"  YOU WILL.

Think that you'll ever carry a television around wherever you go and watch it on trains, planes, while in your car, while in the park, and all of the other places you used to go to do interesting things which involved exercise?  YOU WILL.

Think that you'll ever sit in restaurants and stare at a little screen instead of having a conversation with the person you're "having lunch with?"  YOU WILL.

Think that your children will ever demand- and receive- data plans which allow them to become texting, downloading, viewing morons like their parents?  THEY WILL.

Think that you'll ever forget how to have actual face-to-face meetings with actual human beings because you've built an electronic cocoon around yourself and have become a socially isolated zombie?  YOU WILL.

Think that you'll ever become addicted to the idea of recording every television show and then spending entire weekends "catching up" on "your favorites" instead of doing all those things you currently do with weekends- like meet up with friends, go to plays and movies and museums, or just read?  YOU WILL.

Think that you'll ever spend a huge chunk of the only life you'll ever have playing video games involving cartoon birds and candy and exploding skeletons and wizards, even though you're an adult? YOU WILL.

It's 1993, and AT&T is giving us a grim vision of our electronics-dominated future.  If only we had played closer attention and remembered that no matter how helpful technology looks at its introduction, it always gets twisted and corroded by Wall Street and Capitalism.  Meh, it probably would not have mattered.

Oh, and BTW- what the hell is a "fax?"