All posts by Steve Case

Why do Some Ads Make You Buy – and Others Turn You Away?

Have you seen the commercial with the guy in the toll booth? The guy takes a sly look back and forth, pulls out an Almond Joy candy bar, and palm trees suddenly fill the booth. It’s a well-executed ad, but why does the “unwrap paradise” theme not work for me?

Ad for Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars

One other thing I should mention: I like Mounds candy bars, the companion product in the ad. Maybe I’m just not motivated by the thought of plastic palm trees popping-up around my desk. Maybe it’s something else: That ad doesn’t really touch my senses – except that I do perceive the texture and scent of plastic palm branches when I see that ad.

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Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and now Giving Tuesday

You’ve finished the Thanksgiving leftovers, survived Black Friday, visited your favorite local shops on Small Business Saturday and your Cyber Monday purchases are on their way to you. What’s next?

Giving Tuesday!

After spending a pretty penny on gifts for ourselves and our loved ones, Giving Tuesday encourages us to give of ourselves. That might mean:

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National Grandparents Day – Please Gift Responsibly

Happy Grandparents Day Scribbles
A scribble picture from a child to a grandparent

In 1978 the US Congress passed legislation proclaiming the first Sunday after Labor Day  as National Grandparents Day.

Some would say it’s just another Hallmark holiday, suggesting that it’s a “made up” holiday concocted primarily so that Hallmark and other companies can profit from it. Certainly money is made relative to Grandparents Day, but the same can be said for birthdays, Easter, Christmas, and a variety of other holidays.

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A Pox on Gift Shops

Seasonal candles and candle holders in a gift shop window
Seasonal candles and candle holders in a gift shop window

I’ve referred to gift shops as places that sell things you wouldn’t buy for yourself. Recently I had to clean out a house that included gifts like these that had become a burden. In fact, an entire cabinet was filled with candles received as gifts.

As I was filling (and hauling) boxes, I was not thinking nice things about the nice people in the nice gift shops selling those nice gifts. Quite the contrary, I thought about the people who wanted to do something nice by giving a friend or loved-one something they’d enjoy looking at, not realizing the recipient would eventually need to do something with it. It was also a wake-up call to me that I want to deal with my own clutter now rather than subjecting someone else to it later. Not only does it take up space, but clutter is unhealthy.

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Happy Birthday America!

On July 4, America celebrates Independence Day. Contrary to popular belief, it marked the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution was ratified over a decade later.

That was then…

Like many holidays, the sentiment behind Independence Day sometimes seems overtaken by commercialization and marketing. We see “4th of July” sales, and even references to “the holiday.” Then there are the picnics, ball games, fireworks… things which actually start to sound familiar:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations [fireworks] from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776

John Adams was one of America’s founding fathers. Clearly he didn’t think all of this merry-making distracted from the solemnity of the holiday. Quite the contrary, it emphasized what a very big deal America’s independence was – and continues to be!

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Does Fresh Flying Food Make You Hungry?

You’ve seen the ads on TV: Colorful tomatoes and other vegetables flying through the air while the sound track repeatedly says “Fresh!” – as if you’re part of some experiment in Pavlovian conditioning. Sometimes the vegetables run into a knife in mid-air, though “fresh” isn’t necessarily the first word that comes to mind when I see that.

Take One

Wet, sunlit, fresh, vine-ripe tomatoes flying through the air toward an imagined knife.
Wet, sunlit, fresh tomatoes flying through the air.

I did an experiment with some vegetables to see if fresh, wet vegetables in motion made me hungry. What do you think? These tomatoes look great to me, but seeing them in motion don’t necessarily make me any more hungry. Maybe because I took my pictures outside (instead of indoors in front of a black background) they aren’t as appealing. Maybe black or white backgrounds like the studios use are supposed to help make us even more hungry?

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