Allstate joins the assault on Working from Home

 

Remember that whole series of nasty, anti-Work from Home commercials Apple dumped on us at the height of the pandemic?  It was called "The Outsiders" and it focused on a group of unmotivated slackers determined to cheat their employer out of productive hours by doing as little work as possible from their home "work stations."  

Well, I guess that Corporate America isn't quite done trashing employees yet, because here's another Lazy Good For Nothing Cheater Living High on the Hog at his Company's Expense commercial, this time from Allstate.  

Look at this guy.  He's got a substantial house with a swimming pool (and a faux Roman statue for decoration, nice subtle touch there, Allstate) which he's enjoying by sunning himself while pretending to be on a Zoom call.  Since he seems to be the host of the call, we can assume he's making more money than any of the other participants, but again, just look at him:  He's not paying any attention to the call.  He's not working.  All he cares about is his tan and his pool and (inexplicably) the fact that he's saving 25% by bundling home and auto insurance with Allstate.  This guy needs to get back to the office where the ceiling cameras can keep an eye on him, am I right?  This is what happens when we let the most productive workers in the world good for nothing slackers "work" from home- they will totally take advantage of their Saintly employers.   You know, like they did during that so-called pandemic that only existed to The Former Guy from his rightful office.

The message is clear:  American workers are worthless unless they are being carefully supervised.  Left to their own devices, they'll cheat the system and smile while doing it.  Working from Home is a necessary evil during lockdowns and all that, but it's time to get back to Normal, which means it's time to get back to rush hours and offices and the 9 to 5 (but keep your phone on before 9 and after 5, there's money to be made after all.)

*for sure, I'm a 25% savings away from having all this.  Sure, I am. 

KFC brings us an overflowing bucket of mmmm....STUPID!

 

"mmmmm.....I married into a family of mouth-breathers so witless and incapable of thinking about anything other than what is actually in front of their face, I can actually appreciate a few seconds of silence because seriously- if this is what they think about while eating, imagine the pointless drivel that comes pouring out of their mouths when they DO speak."

"I mean, they could at least notice that despite the fact that we all have chicken on our plates, the bucket is overflowing.  But hey, it's a KFC commercial so that's kind of a given, isn't it?"

Here's another Home Computer Blast from the Past!

 

Ah, the good old days- when you could sell a computer by showing a kid pretending (badly) to type on a "professional keyboard" (when nobody had a computer at home, and very few people used one at work, what did this mean?  Whatever we want it to mean, of course!) and you could convince probably more than a few people that the system you were selling responded to voice commands (the kid says "ADAM, move that paragraph" while using the keyboard to move it- I bet we were supposed to think that the computer "obeyed" him.)

And that a project "you'll never finish by morning" will get done in approximately 15 seconds because you've got a word processor program which is doing absolutely nothing that can't be done with the electronic typewriter I relied on my freshman year of college- I'm not going to tell you what year that was, but the anniversary is coming up this month and the first number in the Announcement/Request for Donations is "4."  Ugh.

And that a computer which did not have internet access because that wasn't a thing yet but can be used to create a "launch sequence."  Who does this kid think he is, David Lightman?  Gonna play Thermonuclear War next?

At least back then, Lori Laughton was worried about what was legal....

Alan Alda and ATARI- just a fun blast from the past!*

 

Ah, the late-70s, when Alan Alda could sell home arcade systems (I'm pretty sure "gaming" wasn't in the vocabulary back then) as "the perfect gift for the college student" while showing us a kid typing away on a blue screen with a white font (that wasn't anyone wanted to do then, any more than it's something anyone wants to do now.)  

This Atari system has "spell check"- as long as the user notices the spelling error first, and tells the program to fix it.  At least it isn't Magic Desk, that cartridge I used as my first "Word Processing Program" in my Commodore 64 during my freshman year of college- that thing held a total of 1000 pages of text, each of which had to be saved individually and filed into one of the four drawers of a cartoon file cabinet.  Definitely more useful than an electronic typewriter, which doesn't "make all the copies you want as long as you can find ink for the printer somewhere" like Mr. Alda's meal ticket. 

*I'm still recovering from my bout with That Illness That Shall Not Be Named.  I'm tired.  This was easy.  Sue me. :>)

Tovala: For those with money to burn, I guess

 

I guess this is how you one-up the neighbors who always seem to have a DoorDash or GrubHub or whatever delivery guy in their driveway, except how do you casually let those neighbors know that you are SO SO VERY BUSY and that money is SO VERY NOT AN OBJECT that you actually purchased a food service that includes a specialized oven along with the prepackaged, Sprinkle This Packet of Seasonings on So You Can Pretend You Participated in the Creation of this Meal food boxes which show up like clockwork every other week?

Oh, and lady?  I don't give one flying damn that you have more time for conference calls because you made this stupid commitment of money because you can time is precious.  Doesn't make you less of a lazy idiot who throws around cash like it's going out of style.  I can't relate to you, and I really don't want to, either.  Order a damn pizza. 

The "new" cult of Weight Watchers

 

I tried to find the Weight Watchers (that's what WW stands for; it's just the rebranding of an old company) commercial featuring the woman with a degree in Nutrition* who went to the WW app TO FIND OUT HOW TO MANAGE HER WEIGHT.  I wondered what I would think of a dentist who went on tv to tell us that he found out how to take care of his teeth through an app- like, what were those years of specialized training for again?  I couldn't find it, but there was something in this ad (yes, it's an ad, not an innocent little "just my story" post, as you'll see in a moment) that really caught my attention.

Actually, it wasn't in the ad at all.  It was in the comments section.  A poster asked "weren't you using another system just a little while ago?" and is told by the creator "yeah, now I've switched to WW!"  The fact that the commenter KNOWS she was using another system a few months ago tells me that she posted about how amazing THAT was.  Now she's posting about how amazing WW is.  Why shouldn't I suspect - or just ASSUME- that in a few months she'll be pitching ANOTHER weight loss system as "amazing?"**  I'm sorry, but I don't see the difference between what this woman is doing and the people who move from ItWorks to Scentsy to CutCo to Amway to LuLaRoe to doTerra to Young Living and each time post to tell us about their incredible success at whatever Multi-Level Marketing Scam they are exploring this month and how it's perfect for all of us- this month. 

Maybe this woman should keep her advice to herself until she actually manages to stick to a program that works for more than three months or so.  Right now it just looks like she's willing to shill for any company willing to toss her a few bucks here and there.  

*which is not really a thing, any more than "Life Coach" is really a thing. It's just that Americans in particular either have no money, or money to burn. 

**Here's this same woman  in February 2021 telling us about her fabulous success with "Bright Line Eating." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBaiXnlji6Y

 

This Salonpas Commercial is just TOO much.....

 

Is it really feasible to ANYBODY that three middle-aged doctors sitting down for lunch in what I guess is a medical office building cafeteria would discuss a question like "what are you recommending for muscle pain?"  And if it is, is it at all realistic that the doctors would agree on an over-the-counter menthol patch and not some expensive pill or injection?  PLEASE!

"My patients really like these patches because they work up to twelve hours..." which means that by the time it's been demonstrated that the band-aid doesn't really solve the problem, the patients have to call for another appointment, and another round of paperwork can be filled out for the health insurance company?  And your patients like the patches SO MUCH that you keep a box of them in your pocket at all times, so you can draw it like a six-shooter on the off-chance that one of your fellow doctors forgets that they are themselves a doctor and asks a question like "what do you recommend for muscle pain?"