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As of June 22 US law changed and cigarette makers could no longer use terms like light, ultra light, medium, low, or mild. For most non-(cigarette)-smokers this change means little and might have been nothing more than an "Oh, that's interesting" article. For smokers, it has lead to some confusion, depending on preference. And even some non-smokers, those who work in places where cigarettes are sold, are affected as they have to not only translate between the old term that people are familiar with to the new terms or looks that are actually present, but also explain why the pack doesn't say "light" or such. To make it bit more confusing, there are a few different standards of what is done now, derived from earlier packaging, depending upon brand.
See this article or this one for details.
No big deal, right? It's just the same old stuff with differently labeled packs. Except some people are set in their ways and expectations. "It has to say 'Medium' on the box." gets awkward when that's now "Red Label" and someone simply cannot grasp that things have changed in name but it's exact same product. Or someone who buys softpacks (which sell slower than the hard packs or flip top boxes) still sees 'light' from the old stock that has yet to rotate out and then encounters 'blue' or 'gold' or such for the first time. "Don't you have lights?" And then one gets to explain why they are getting "golds" or "blues" instead now.
In the last day or two I have received two pieces of mail from Capitol One - the folks that advertise[1] the "No Hassle" card - with one declaring "Action Required" and both proclaiming a 0% introductory rate. And upon closer inspection, both eventually jumping to 22.9% variable. Alright, I know that credit cards get to play fast and loose with interest rates compared to... well, just about anyone but loan sharks and the economy is in pretty rough shape, but 22.9% variable? Come on. These mailpieces are shredder-fodder and nothing more.
[1] I assume they still advertise the "No Hassle" thing, but I haven't watched TV, save for the odd visit away from home, in over a year.
Back in March 2006 I received a postcard thing from K-Designers and posted a bit about it. A bit later in July 2006 someone tried to defend the advertising practice and I posted a response pointing out why it was scammy. Another card showed up in August and I posted scans of it to point out problems. And then, other then the odd reply to those entries, including some blatant astroturfing in 2008, I hadn't heard any more from K-Designers.
Until today when another, different, card showed up in the mail. It's still a "FREE GIFT!" that I am supposed to "Call IMMEDIATELY" to receive and the "FREE is still repeated. It's still AUTO 5-DIGIT which indicates a mass mailing. There are some changes, however. The silly fake-cursive attempt at personalization is gone as is the claim that they have been trying to reach me. The phone number is listed by number and as 1-800-SAVE-902 so it indicates something for sale if only barely. Also, there is nothing indicating just what the "free gift" might be. I suspect it's not free, except in the narrow monetary sense: One would have to endure a sales pitch.
The biggest change is that there is a return address that even has K-Designers' logo on it. They finally admit just who they are and they claim to be a "home remodeling leader" as part of their registered trademark. Curiously there is also a fine print list of states and what appear to be building permit numbers. The one for MN (20138685) appears to be for siding permit in Mountain Lake.
With these change, has my opinion of K-Designers changed? Only slightly if at all. The first impression was made, twice, and the comments on earlier posts only served to confirm my suspicions - especially some of the comments attempting to defend K-Designers' practices. The amazingly poor attempt at astroturfing didn't help, either. This new card does at least identify the sender, but it is still just a ploy to get folks to call them as a means of getting around Do Not Call legislation.
Over two years ago, on August 5, 2006 I posted a couple scans of an advertising come on as well as a transcript of the text. That post shows up on web searches and has received a few comments from other folks curious about who was behind the card. One or two claim to have been salesm...er, Marketing Directors, for the company. Of course there have been the occasional defenders of the company as well. No big deal.
But in last few weeks this post has gotten more replies than usual. One joker made the mistake of posting how he worked for the company in one post, and then a bit later posting how he was a customer of the wonderful place - from the same IP. Since I pointed that out the IP addresses are no longer even similar. But the recent spate of anonymous defenders urging me to "do something beneficial" and seems more than mere coincidence. ("Once is a fluke, twice is coincidence, three times is a trend.") It smells of astroturfing to me. Considering the nature of the "advertising" that prompted the original post, I am not at all surprised. Well, I sort of am. All this attention given to a 2+ year old post? Is my little post that big a deal for them? Wow. How delicate and desperate is their situation if that old post is a somehow a threat?
The new Pepsi logo is drawing some attention. I'm even writing about it and I don't care for Pepsi. No, I don't believe that it's a stylized version of the Obama "O" thing. Pepsi has used variations on the theme of red, white, and blue in a circle for some time. Those who really track these things noticed that the new logo isn't all that new anyway. The coincidence, which is all I expect it is, does mean there are folks talking about Pepsi who otherwise would not be. So it's an advertising bonus for them in the "There's no bad publicity, just spell the name right" way. This bit of Pepsi advertising reminded me of another.
Advertising does at times amuse me, and not always when the advertiser wishes it to. Ours was a Coca-Cola household, but there was a Pepsi item around. It was a trash can. It was a smallish thing, like might be found in a kitchen or bedroom. I remember it not being big around enough to seem like a enlarged can of Pepsi. Nowadays I could say that it looked more like an enlarged Red Bull can wearing Pepsi colors. This can amused me in a way, or perhaps confused me. Pepsi was getting their name and logo out and visible in daily life even away from their product. But a trash can? What does that say about their product? "Hi. Drink our cola. It's garbage."
When I first watched Doctor Who I did so on Wisconsin Public Television where there was no commercial interruption during the program. After I moved, I sometimes watched Doctor Who on Iowa Public Television, also without commercial interruption during the program. Lately I've been watching the new seasons on Doctor on DVD, where of course there is no commercial interruption during the program.
I set the timer on the VCR to record Doctor Who last Friday and tonight, and will again for next Friday for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sistaur as she is sans cable and satellite. I decided to try watching a bit, even though I haven't seen any of the other episodes for this season. I switched the TV off at the commercial break. If I watch it, I'll watch the tape where I can skip over that. Or I'll just wait. I only just finished watching the last season. I suppose it is a bit odd. Too impatient to put up with commercials, patient enough to wait perhaps months to avoid commercials.
It's not that I never see commercials, as I do see them (though I might not hear them as I mute the annoyances almost reflexively) if I watch commercial television which does happen. It's that there is an inherent wrongness to commercials interrupting Doctor Who.
Know your own URL
3 September 2007 15:53This weekend jmaynard spent a couple days at the Des Moines renaissance faire. One of the vendors there was Summerset Winery. Neither of us had any wine, but some of their wares caught my attention and I asked for a business card. Alas, they had no cards or none with them. I was given their URL.
I was told www.summersetwinery.com (and I double checked that I had the name right) which is not what is really desired but a somewhat spammish site that has a bunch of semi-related links. That's why I did not make that link clickable: Whoever it is, they don't deserve the traffic.
Doing a bit of searching I find that www.summersetwine.com is their real, useful, site. By mistakenly giving me the wrong URL they nearly had me write them off as being too spammish to do business with.
I mentioned the MG2 sleazeballs before. In the followups, it was revealed that these jokers are also Tri-Star and push Tri Star Home Care Products (vacuum cleaners).
Well, another Bingo card arrived in the mail. It's from Orion Systems in Loveland CO with a postmark from Advanced Direct Marketing, Inc. also in Loveland, CO.
This time I scanned the card for folks' entertainment and perhaps enlightenment. The images are 800 pixels wide, so they're hidden behind the cut.
( Everyone is a winner...uh huh. )
Again, everyone is a winner. It says so, "You are guaranteed to win one of the prizes listed on the back of this card." But take a look and you see that:
1 gets $5,000.
51 get an XBox 360. ($399)
223 get an iPod Video. ($249)
25,925 get a nineteen piece cutlery set. ($36)
and...
473,800 get a certificate for 3 days/2 nights accommodation. (Not sold retail, so no monetary equivalent.)
One can only wonder what sort of accommodations that certificate is good for and what hoops must jumped through for it to be honored. That there is no retail value suggests that it is pretty much worthless. That's after the very likely demonstration of the vacuum cleaner. "You may be asked to view Tri Star Home Care Products." is in the fine print. And if you do actually win the $5,000 grand prize, they get to use your likeness in future promotions.
The number to (not) call is: 1-800-667-3548 or 1 800 667 3548 or 18006673548 or 8006673548. There, now search engines can find this entry by phone number.
There is no arithmetic test to serve as a lottery disclaimer with this card. Since every card is a "winner" there is no chance, and so no lottery as such. Again, it's legal though hardly ethical.
This time it's an "Important Delivery" letter. A designation that USPS does not use. It's pink. It's a 'carbonless' envelope with black obscuring over much of it, so it looks like something that has personal information or a check. But countering that is the text "SECOND NOTICE" which is a lie. For it to be a second of anything there'd have to be a previous one.
Opening it, oh gee, they're "trying to reach" me. Seems they have my address and just did. Oh, it's about a sweepstakes. Hrm, it's from Clearwater, Florida. As if the alarums hadn't been tripping merrily already. Let's see what Google brings up. Only link about the included phone number. This link about sleazy magazine subscription come ons.
This is another case of them not able to do telemarketing so trying to get folks to call them. And since they very carefully avoid saying they're selling anything (though there is a disclaimered logo of one magazine and reference to "if you decide to take advantage of our magazine offer" in the fine print) I am uncertain as to if I can effectively sic 'em with a Form 1500, dagnabbit.
The initials, which they use in the return address, are appropriate: N.M.E. Yep, an enemy to be thwarted.
This past February borderpilot mentioned he had "Larry, Dell Customer advocate" stalking his LiveJournal. I don't have Larry (though that might change with this post, who knows?) but I have someone else.
Almost a year ago I posted about a couple sleazy advertising gimmicks. Since then, that has been the top Google result for people researching some of the same sleazy advertising. Mainly it was those folks replying, some with thanks and some with more information. Occassionally it was someone working for one of the companies trying to defend the sleazy practices, but it was an anonymous hit-and-run sort of reply.
Not any more. Now there is dazed721 with a shiny new LJ account and the sole interest of MG2. He (or she?) has been defending, or trying to defend, MG2's practices in replies to my original post. I do wonder about the name. "Dazed" just seems too apt. Is this real, or is someone try to game me?
Spamusement
24 January 2007 15:33Every once in a while I get an anonymous comment that is just link spam. Nobody but me sees these as I have things such that anyone not my "friends list" can leave a comment, but those must be reviewed by me before being made public. Almost all are made public. Spammers and trolls are the exceptions, of course.
Today another spammer tried, pushing a web site of no interest and less merit. But that's not the funny part. The funny part is this bozo (which is likely a script, but still bozotic) picked this post about scammy advertising to try to do his scammy advertising. Well, that's appropriate. And also deleted.
That's what the big text on the boxes read when I saw the display at the store this afternoon. I guess they had to be sure to distinguish their product from all those unheated electric blankets.
Video rental offers
1 December 2006 16:09A couple things arrived in the mail this week, that when taken together are a bit amusing. First, Netflix is offering a free trial. A few days later another advert shows up in the mailbox. A local video rental place is offering a free rental, a couple rent-one and get one free deals, and even offering to forgive up to $25 in late fees. I wonder about that last one. While the advert is addressed to "resident" so noting I owe no late fees as I've never even rented from them hardly matters. That they are are willing to waive $25 of fees if someone "Comes back" (as the ad copy reads) says something.
I find it amusing that I've not rented a movie or such since I was in Platteville and now I get two free video rental offers in the same week.
I've mentioned this bit of scammy advertising (here and here) that attempts to trick the recipient of a post card into calling a number so as to bypass any Do Not Call listings. Since then, I've gotten yet another card from these jokers.
This time I didn't just toss it. Instead, I've scanned it so it can be an example for me to point out a few things. Also, I'm transcribing it so that search engines can find this entry and match it to any inquiries based on the text or phone numbers.
The full text of the back of this alleged post card is as follows:
I've been unable to reach you about a free gift. Please call 1-800-728-3902 within the next five days to find out how to receive your FREE George Foreman Grill.
Chris Johnson
Awards Coordinator
And just to make it a bit easier for searches, that phone number not to call is 18007283902 or 8007283902 or 1 800 728 3902 or 1-800-728-3902 or 800-728-3902.
For anyone who didn't bother with the links and wonders just who these jokers are and what this about, this is from K-Designers and they want people to call them so they can try to sell siding. Supposedly if you endure their sales pitch(es) you will actually eventually get a grill. Gee, why don't they say who they are or what their product is before people call?
Looking around the net some, it seems they went with this gimmick when Do Not Call went into effect and they couldn't interrupt your supper anymore. That should give some idea of how ethical these jokers are.
UPDATE 03 November 2008:
In the space of a few minutes from 3:23 CST to 3:31 CST (by LiveJournal's clock) today there were several posts all from IP Address (140.239.81.98) each claiming to be a different satisfied customer, in at least three different states. All from the very same IP address. All in a few minutes. What does that mean? One person, using the same computer, pretending to be multiple people. This is called Astroturfing as it is an attempt to appear to be a grassroots thing but is, like astroturf, not the real thing. This is the second time someone at a single IP claimed to be multiple people, all of whom happened to be defending K-Designers. I hardly need to say what this says about the company, or at the very least about some of its employees.
UPDATE 22 AUGUST 2009
They have a new card now. It's still a "free gift, call us" ploy, but at least now the card has K-Designers' return address as an identifying mark.
"Apply directly to..."
19 July 2006 14:15If you've had the misfortune of encountering a certain obnoxiously loud and repetitive television commercial, you know the rest of that line. If not, consider yourself fortunate. The product, whose purpose the commercial never actually mentions, is supposedly a headache medication. Considering how they advertise, I can only hope the makers don't expand their product line to include a hemorrhoid medication.
In the Sleaze Factor post back in March I mentioned the postcardiod stunt that K-Designers pulls. Today there was a reply posted to it. The reply is reproduced here:
I work for K-Designers
It's not really a scam it's just an advertisement. Basiclly, if you call the number on that card you'll be connected to an inbound rep at our call center. Then they'll inform you that if you allow a sales rep to come out to your home and show you one of our two promotional products, either, 'Siding' or 'Windows', whichever one you're interested in then you'll receive a free george forman grill whether you decide to buy it or not. So as long as you just take a look at our product then you'll receive the grill. The appointment is very brief and the rep will only stay as long as you're interested and have questions. [And as far as the times go we go to different areas looking for promotional homes to help us advertise. That's why the card probably suggests urgency.]
I assure you K-Designers isn't a scam... we've been in buisness for 27 years and we're the #4 home remodling company in the US.
That card is just a ploy to get people to listen to our sales pitch. That's all. You really CAN get a free George Forman grill if you want one. :p
Take care. Hope this puts your mind at ease!
Oh brother. They may be the #4 home remodeling company, but their advertising methods stinks of #2.
Lets see:
- There is the admission that the card "is just a ploy"
- Neither the name of the company nor its product is listed on the card so the "Awards Coordinator" could be mistaken for some genuine drawing someone might have entered and forgot the details of.
- Googling the phone number didn't reveal the company directly, but the company was revealed by someone warning of the ploy.
- Googling the company name leads to an entry in a Who Called Me Database which suggests if not verifies that the company did engage in telemarketing and is using this ploy to get around Do Not Call legislation.
I'm sure that if someone endured the pitch they would get the grill. But I still call this a scam. It may be (just barely) legal, but that doesn't make it ethical. It depends on tricking people into calling. Scam.
And I rest very assured. Assured in the knowledge that if I ever have any remodeling to do, one place I need not even consider is K-Designers. If they need to trick people into hearing about their product or service rather than advertising it outright, they don't deserve my (or anyone else's) business.
A couple days ago I got yet another bit of advertising nonsense from a car dealer. In this case, in Algona IA which is a bit out of my way. I don't need a different car but the advert was revealing. Like many such adverts, this had a prize offering and went so far as to claim "Guaranteed winner."
There were five prizes. A couple were cash, a few were not. The odds in the fine print were interesting. Very high odds against the cash and the LCD TV and something else. And near-certainty of getting a DVD player. But showing up doesn't get a person a DVD player. It gets a person a mail-in certificate for a DVD player and whoever sends for it gets to pay about $15 shipping.
That's how cheap DVD players have become: they are now give-away items for used car dealers. With the certificate bit, they don't even have to stock anything more than paper certificates.
I have no reason to go to Algona this Saturday, and there's already one DVD player in the house that isn't being used. It's not in the way, so it's kept as a spare. But I am now wondering if there is anyone around that still doesn't have a DVD player.
Sleaze Factor
29 March 2006 13:40Sleazeball #1: K-Designers
A couple times now I've gotten a bit of advertising that is almost but not quite a postcard. It has a printed note that tries and utterly fails to look like a personal handwritten note, asking me to please call an 800 number in the next five days implying that waiting too long will mean I won't get a free, pardon me, FREE George Foreman Grill. It's from an alleged "Awards Coordinator" and lacks any return address.
Smells like a scam of some kind, doesn't it? It is. Googling for the 800 number reveals the scam. It's a means of getting folks to call them, thus bypassing telemarketing rules. Then they try to sell siding.
What amuses me is that I've gotten two of these, weeks if not months apart. Do they expect I'll be worried about missing another phony five day window?
[UPDATE: 22 AUGUST 2009
They have a new card now. It's still a "free gift, call us" ploy, but at least now the card has K-Designers' return address as an identifying mark.]
Sleazeball #2: MG2
A couple days ago there was a card in the mail and it looked somewhat like a state lottery scratch-off ticket. The gimmick is that if you uncovered numbers that made one of the winning patterns on the bingo cards printed on the thing, you had a chance of winning one of several prizes. There is also a bit of arithmetic to do so that it isn't a lottery as far the law is concerned. There is a number to call if one wins.
So far it's just strange, but there is also the fine print. Unfortunately for sleazeballs I am both suspicious and literate. The catch? If you call the number, you play and players "agree to a demonstration of an MG2 home care product." There is, of course, "no obligation to buy" but really, expect pressure even if it is not stated outright.
These sleazy come-ons are amusing in a sad way. I am amused that someone thinks I'll fall for this crap. I am rather depressed that there are probably enough folks who will fall this crap that it will be considered worth the effort and expense. If someplace must resort to this level of sleazy advertising, doesn't that say something about the value of what they offer?
[UPDATE: I got another card, this time I posted scans of it. (IJ: scans) -- 25 June 2007]
[ADDENDUM: This company (MG2) uses a few names, at least in Canada. Those names are: Tri-Star Vacuum Sales & Service, Star Industries, MG2, Star West, 114225 Alberta Ltd, and Supreme Air. Source. -- 29 July 2009]
[ADDENDUM: Today, 11 August 2009 at 3:37 PM Central Daylight Time, I received a phone call from someone at Supreme Air (according to the Caller ID [IJ: Caller ID photo]), claiming to be a lawyer named Mark Wahlberg representing Tri-Star.[1] He claimed to be calling to confirm my address[2] so he could send a registered letter about a libel action in regard to this post.[3] He insisted that I had posted a claim that the company was acting illegally, but would not say where or how I had done so. He claimed "to be reading the web page" and then claimed he had "read it four times today and didn't need to read it again" yet could not point out the alleged actual claim.
I doubt very much that this is any coincidence with the spate of anonymous replies from IP 75.158.95.1 made by someone claiming to be Bill Duncan.[4] Such replies generally have attacked others here who have posted anything critical of MG2/Tri-Star/Supreme Air/etc. I cannot say for sure that it is the same person, but it is difficult to believe this is coincidence.
When I told a lawyer friend of mine about this call and went into the details there was disbelief that any lawyer would have to call someone to confirm their address. When I pointed out how bogus the name seemed I got the reply, "That's fraud. Possibly wire fraud, if he used the phone." and "If that was a lawyer calling using a false identity...um, bar disciplinary committees tend to take a very dim view of that." Considering the nature of the call, I very much doubt that "Mark Wahlberg" really is a lawyer at all. "Pretending to be a lawyer is arguably the practice of law without a license, which I think is a misdemeanor, but also fraud."
Thus the attempt to intimidate me regarding this post actually is an illegal action. Before that call, everything here only mentioned shady ethics and morals. I even pointed out that the arithmetic on the BINGO card was specifically to comply with legal requirements. But now I can factually state that someone at Supreme Air has committed fraud in an attempt to intimidate me. Obviously, that attempt has backfired with this addendum.
UPDATE: 2011 AUGUST 04 - It has been at least several months since this post has gotten any non-spam comment. I am getting several spam comments each week and am tiring of them. If LJ had a mechanism to restrict comments to registered users that could be used on an individual post basis, I would use it. As LJ does not have such a useful thing (and I have some reason not to disable all unregistered comments for the entire journal) I am now locking this post from further comment, at least until such time as a more refined means of spam-prevention (rather than recovery) becomes available on LJ. Spammers and spambots will not have this particular avenue even if the only one to see the result is me as I delete the offending crap. To any legitimate would-be commenters, there are other, related posts I am not (yet) locking down. Sorry for the inconvenience.
[1] Really? Mark Wahlberg and Tri-Star? See what you get when do a search for that: Mark Wahlberg Tri-Star. That's not a very imaginative alias.
[2] And did so by asking for Mark, evidently forgetting that was his own alias. I happen to have a friend who is a lawyer and so I asked him about calling a party one is about initiate a legal action against to determine their address: "He *phoned* you? That's not standard practice."
[3] I asked my friend about this as well and pointed out the "offending" post (this one) and got this reply: "Pfffffffffffffft. Libel action, for this? Rubbish. I think any lawyer would love to put him into deposition and show samples of the firm's ads and such. What does this mean, or what does that mean...."
[4] Or is he Steve Johnson? Check out Steve's profile page and note the date of creation and how many updates (posts) have been made with the account.
-- 11 August 2009]
Timing is everything
16 March 2006 09:08It's snowing again. The optimistic forecast calls for only one or two inches total, the pessimistic forecast says five to nine inches by the time it's over late this afternoon or evening. This morning I heard a radio commercial, "You've been thinking about a certain green and yellow lawn tractor. Come in for a test drive today..." Yeah, this is just the day to test drive a lawn tractor, isn't it?
I have a pen shaped like a syringe. There used to be some red fluid in the barrel of it, presumably to look a bit like blood. The liquid has long ago evaporated, leaving behind the red dye which dried in splotches. What really makes it wrong, though, is the message on the syringe-shaped pen: SAY NO TO DRUG. I did not omit the last letter. That's exactly what it says.
