Tag: Duane Jones
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Bad deal
Reading more of the AI criticism at MindMatters. Most of the complaints are about the talents and “consciousness” of LLMs, which are utterly irrelevant. Altman WANTS us to be arguing about the degree of creativity and the “consciousness” and the fake threat of grabbing the nuclear button. (Big Data has been on the nuclear button…
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Boxtops all the way down
I stay on the email list of NewSuperstitionist because they occasionally feature an interesting development that I hadn’t heard about through other sources. Their emails in recent years reveal a change in their business model. NS runs frequent cruises to various parts of the world, with big-name “Experts On Board” to narrate and discuss what…
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Burgum’s boxtop
Here’s a radical idea, which might have been understood at some time in the prehistoric past: If you want people to do something, pay them. Burgum, considered the likely VP for Trump, understands this ancient weird lost arcane astrological mystical wisdom. He wanted people to vote for him, so he paid them. Because of our…
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Why is that wrong?
Rumble is suing Google for showing Google’s own products first in searches. When you look for maps, Google Maps is first. When you look for financial advice, Google Finance is first. Why is that wrong? Advertising is normal and natural, and advertising your own product is just logical. Why would Google want to boost its…
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Not so dumb
Yesterday I was chuckling over Wells Fargo’s stupid misestimate of human behavior. They signed a 10 year contract with a credit card company that was offering discounts on rent, provided the landlords would agree to the deal. Wells itself would bear the cost of the discounts, so the landlords wouldn’t lose. Wells figured that very…
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More along the same line
More thoughts spawned by rereading the Duane Jones book on advertising, and listening to those auto dealer training films at bedtime. Both sources were aimed at salesmen, not customers. The training films were not even available to customers. Because they were “secret”, both were openly crass and cynical, recommending sneaky tricks. BUT: Both agreed crassly…
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First ads
Someone on substack was defending the need for advertising when done for honest purposes. I commented: Yes! Advertising is part of nature. “Buy my pollen, get a free honey drink!” This seems like something I must have written here already, but oddly I didn’t. Despite all my musings on the Duane Jones book, and my…
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Is it cheaper?
Now that I’ve found the Duane Jones book again, I’m reading it again. He was writing in the early 50s when radio and magazines were established but TV was too new to quantify. He was mostly discussing household products sold by radio soap operas and magazine ads. He calculated the advertising cost to acquire one…
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Tiktok switches to Toyota
I’ve overused the Toyota analogy. In this case it’s literal. Until now Japan and China have followed diametrically opposite methods to take over US industries. Neither was aggressive. In both cases our “own” industries happily SURRENDERED the field to the foreign competitor without a fight. Our industries HATE to make things and employ people. They…
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Today is RYPBLTTFMYEBNMWIWNE Day!
Today is Relive Your Past By Listening to the First Music You Ever Bought No Matter What It Was No Excuses Day. (Probably one of Adrian Koopersmith’s special days.) The website says: Think about the first album or singles you ever purchased. Listen to those recordings and think about what was going on in your…
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Great old idea
Via ReligionUnplugged, a British preacher is offering a 15-minute web program of meditation and prayer. Smart idea. Many people are still solidly Christian but got tired of devoting a half day to church, especially when church didn’t bother to defend them against the “virus” holocaust. If the priests won’t fight the most satanic supercrime in…
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It must work, but why?
The Trump cult email spam continues along the same lines. It’s not political or economic in any way. Nothing about borders or walls or jobs or China or Israel. It’s all pure whipsawing emotions, like an obsessed menopausal ex-wife. Today’s subject line: “I would never have expected this from YOU, of all people!” Marketers must…
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Parallel failure
The jokes in previous item reminded me of another modern problem that Duane Jones, writing around 1951, would understand. Jones’s primary rule for advertisers and marketers: REPEATS WHEN SAMPLED. First get the customer to SAMPLE the product, for free or for a nominal price. If the product satisfies a need or desire, the customer will…
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What do they really owe?
Compact mag says colleges owe students transparency about the actions and investments of their endowments. Maybe, but that’s not the FIRST thing colleges owe students. For 70 years all media and culture and corporations have been falsely advertising college as necessary for life and work. Purely false, and most parents and youngsters have figured it…
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Old advice for “journalists”
In reading about McBee-type card systems, ran across Calvin Mooers. He was one of the more interesting characters of early computing. I’ll feature his Zatocard system later, but first want to write up his best-known observation: An information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a…
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