Recent Posts
Boycott Red Bull
Red Bull are currently running a truly woeful series of radio and cartoon TV ads. I have been subject to most of the ads in this series since the campaign began a couple of years ago, and I am yet to see an ad that is funny, inventive or would make Red Bull even remotely attractive to me in any way.
The "caffeine rich, sugar heavy" drinks market is very competitive and in this market, Red Bull seems to be a bit of a leader. I personally quite like the product (particularly with vodka) and was previously a regular purchaser until the "Red Bull Gives You Wings" campaign began. This company should know better and should be able to do better. As such they deserve scorn and to lose their market share a little for their terrible efforts at advertising.
So please, for the sake of not having to listen and/or watch those bloody horrible Red Bull ads, stop buying their product until they change their advertising habits. Thanks.
The World as we know it is turning more and more into one gigantic advertising space. Not many of us like it, but it seems that we are just going to have to live with it. But we can fight back against it in our own litte way and this is mine.
Advertising is hard to ignore. Its in our faces all day, on TV, on Billboards, in newpapers and magazine, its all over the internet and even our clothing is adorned with it. Whether we like it or not, Advertising is EVERYWHERE! And so much advertising that we see is truly horrendous. We don't like to put with crap in other facets of our lives, so why should we put up with it in the things that are forced upon us, trying to get us to buy their product? We Shouldnt!
So I say we should all start boycotting the products advertised with truly horrible advertising - bad slogans, awful ads, cliched junk, bad acting, whatever it is you don't like about advertising.
Am I suggesting we stop consuming? Hell No. What I would like to see is a turnaround - if you were planning to buy a product that is being badly advertised, buy a similar product from their nearest competitor! That'll teach the bastards for polluting our brain-spaces with their Mind-Spam! Yeah!
Hate an Ad? Let me know – it can go on the list of ads that right now are worth boycotting! Then all you have to do is make sure you either don't buy it at all, or that you buy a competitor's product instead.
Nobody likes being thought of as an idiot, especially by people you've never even met, but when people say that first impressions count for everything, they're not kidding. In the business of internet dating, a headline or description spelled incorrectly can mean the difference between meeting someone ideal or not receiving any decent contact at all.
Friends of mine lament the fact that they always seem to attract the same sorts of people, including those on the internet that respond to their profiles and I think I know why this is, well for part of it anyway.
I will admit firstly that I am a bit of a spelling Nazi, but I am pretty sure that any profile that has horrible spelling in its headline is not going to get the attention is seeks, and if it does it is bound to be attention from people who cant recognise bad spelling and are probably only looking at the picture anyway – so are they the people you are really trying to attract?
To give you an example of the type of thing I am talking about, I took a recent trawl through RSVP to see what kind of bad headlines I could find. This is an example from a very quick look, and I actually find it a little disturbing. These are all genuine, I have not edited them in any way.
Headlines from Women seeking Men
email me u wont be dissponited (too late, I'm already disappointed)
someone need 1 person....................... ............................. ........................ (well it wont be me)
walking in the moonlight ...........looking for someone to shear time with (got a woolly clock?)
Hi........................... ........................ (wow..fascinating use of dots, let me at her! NOT)
Not good at catchy phrases (honesty is always a good start I suppose)
From Men Seeking Women
I hate it when people have witty headlines (because you couldn't think of anything?)
I have evrything you need if your not satisfied return me and pik again (gee, its hard to refuse such charm)
Reasonably nice guy looking to meet fun partner (reasonably nice? How attractive!)
...just trembling to meet you... (maybe you should see a Doctor?)
AND my Personal Favourite
I don't have a criminal record
These are a very small sample of some of the headlines that are out there, and I was actually a bit shocked that the men's spelling wasn't really that bad compared to the women's. What makes this even dumber is that they are writing this stuff on a computer – every computer in the world has some form of spelling checker, so for goodness sake, Use It!
Other details of profiles that suck include bad photos. We are surrounded by technology, indeed you need to have at least a rudimentary understanding of it to get your profile on the net to begin, but the photos online are just terrible. Now I'm not asking for glamour shots from anyone or special photography or anything like that, but some of the photos are so bad that its hard to get a decent idea of what someone is going to look like because some photos are just way too pixelated. Even a cheap mobile phone camera can take a shot at 1.2 megapixels, which will provide a decent enough photo for this kind of thing, so bad shots online are almost unforgivable, especially when the instructions for uploading are included right there on the screen.
Shared on
So I started this whole experiment just to find out how successful dating sites are. I can confirm that yes, they are successful. They work...or at least they do in my case.
I have a number of friends, both male and female who have accounts on various dating sites, and they have had varying degrees of success, so it seems that my 100% strike rate (1 date, 1 success) is a bit of an anomoly. Really, I think it is.
One female friend goes out on dates almost every week and she is certain that even the nice ones, the ones that "want" to go out on a few dates before they inevitably end up having sex are still actually only after sex
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
Kind of like an impromptu survey, I have been noting what men and women write in their profiles as things they think should attract a potential mate. There are a couple of things that it seems everyone puts in their profile and I wonder if it is a good way to gauge what we think is important in a partner.
An overwhelming number write that they have either a good sense of humour and are down to earth. A lot of times they had both. It could be that they have used someone else’s profile as a reference for How To Write Your Profile and thought that they might be attractive traits but in general, I would almost bet that everyone thinks they have a good sense of humour. Not just on dating websites, I mean everyone. And that just isn’t true or possible.
The Down-To-Earth phenomenon is interesting too. What constitutes “Down-To-Earthiness” anyway? According to www.phrases.org.uk it means that you are “Someone who is without false pride or pretense. A sensible person. A person who knows what is truly important. Being called "down-to-earth" is a good thing
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
Advertising is an interesting thing. What it means is that you can openly write things that are clearly not true and it doesn’t matter, because it’s “advertising”. It is interesting to note that dating websites put things on their front pages about their “success” and they are interesting. In Victoria, the Adult Sex based dating site www.AdultFriendFinder.com has something like one woman for every eight men. That seems a little biased, don’t you think? I don’t really like my odds there.
In terms of the Project, (which quite frankly has been thrown into jeopardy due to a certain person by the name of Gwen) I find it particularly interesting that each of the three biggest dating websites claims to be Australia’s No.1. LavaLife claims that they are the “No.1 dating site in Australia”, but they don’t follow that claim up with any form of statistic, real or made up. What do they base it on? I personally have had way more responses on both RSVP and Match. In fact, these are the figures to date -
Kisses received from
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
I’m not 100% sure, but I think everyone is on RSVP. One of the various reasons I was able to begin this “Perennial Bachelor” Project was because a friend of mine found a great woman using RSVP. It gave me courage. Of course, he didn’t tell me himself, his sister (lets call her Gloria) filled in the gaps for me. She also let me know that their mother is also on the site, and has also had some success. Gloria was reluctant but finally admitted that she (and their sister too) has an active profile as well.
Gwen obviously has her profile up there. Her two housemates and some of their other friends do too. They talk about it all the time. They tell their friends about it, and they all talk about it together. They go on dates and they tell each other all the good and bad things that happen to them out dating. I love being there to listen to what they talk about. Hearing these stories about blokes and the things they say and do out on dates is genuinely funny and really very enlightening. They can be mercilessly harsh, about themselves, about each other and about everyone in between. It’s hilarious. They have nicknames for all of their dates and they openly laugh about each other’s various stories. I wonder what my nickname is? It probably has something to do with a shirt I wore the first time I went to Gwen’s house to pick her up for our date. If not, I’ll be very surprised if it isn’t something like “Mr. Wonderful”.
I love hearing them talk about these things, its an honest version of What Women Think. They are very observant, very sharp and they watch how Gwen and I react to one another, bag us for being overly soppy or sappy and saying cute little “early in the relationship” type things to each other. They have made me become a little more aware of what I am saying, because I know that they will remember a lot of it and use it against me down the track. (Like that Mr. Wonderful comment I made earlier
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
At no time in Human history has so much information been so readily available. The term “google” is a daily part of our lives. If I need to know anything, I can find millions of references in (0.06 seconds). I research a lot of different things throughout the day and I am not a member of my local library. I spend a lot of time online. I think we all do nowadays. I almost can’t remember what life was like before we were able to do all of this great stuff online. It is truly amazing. I have Credit Cards and Bank Accounts with five different financial institutions. Imagine the farting around I would have to do if there were no ATMs, let alone no online facilities. I would never put up with it in the physical world. I would just learn to simplify.
This has all become mainstream in about the last eight to ten years. Pretty much every conceivable service is available online, and I am certain it must be possible to get on with life without coming into contact with anyone, except maybe for the occasional delivery person dropping off your groceries. It would make a fascinating social study, and probably an even better science fiction story set sometime in the future where human contact is out of vogue. To give you an example of what I mean, in the past three months I have done all of these things from the comfort of my home and (with the exception of number 11) without actually making any human contact.
1. Applied for and received a Credit Card
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
If you have ever considered using a dating website to meet someone then you probably know that one of the first steps to getting your details online for someone to select is to write your own profile. It’s kind of like writing a resume but for personal stuff. Basically, you need to include details about yourself that aren't going to make you sound like a dickhead to any girl who may read your profile. You want her to be interested in you – so how do you do that? Lie? Embellish? Even just a little bit? Probably not a good foot to start on if you want any potential relationship to go anywhere.
Describing yourself in a positive way is hard work, without wanting to sound too positive about how great you are. Australians are funny like that - while you know you're pretty great, you should never really tell anyone, because they'll remember it and remind you of it for the rest of your life. Like Don Bradman, stay modest until the end. (If only Anthony Mundine would learn this, people might like him). Its pretty rare that you'll have to actually think about yourself in that way, and it can actually be a bit of an eye-opener. Do you consider yourself good looking? Would you put that in the profile? Do you really know how to describe your interests in a positive way? Are you actually interested in anything that would attract a partner? Would you be attracted to her if she listed her hobbies as Tattoos, Xbox and Drinking? OK, bad example.
I found describing myself physically the hardest part. I know what I look like, but how do I describe me? It turns out that I write up pretty well. Yes, I’m 6ft. (Okay, so Im 5ft 11, shut up about it) Yes, I have Blonde hair and blue eyes, yes I have an athletic build…I sound like a fair dinkum poster boy for clichéd Australians from the 50’s, but the truth is that I’m not that physically attractive. The best I get is called “cute”. I’m ok with it by now, I’m not holding onto any dreams of having a mid-life modeling career take off. But I think that’s the key – be realistic, about yourself and your expectations. There is no point lying - you’ll be found out the minute you meet anyway
[ Click here to read more ]
Shared on
Gwen and I have been discussing the matter of the photos on our respective profiles. This started because she asked me if I thought she actually looked anything like the photo (of her and Not Her Child) that she had posted on RSVP. And it occurred to me that no, she really doesn’t look that much like the photo she has on there, and to be completely honest, she is much better looking in real life. The photo of me up on the site looks like a bad attempt at a Zoolander pose, but that is actually what I look like. I don’t like the photo much, but I have an average looking head and don’t like any photos of me. I also didn’t have any others of me on my computer except for one where I am in the distance, walking away, which I didn’t think sent the right message, except that the angle the photo is taken from makes me look like I have a cute arse.
Whilst browsing the profiles, I have seen some great photos that were obviously taken by professionals – soft focus, professional looking hair and makeup, stylish clothes etc, and was quite surprised that some people would go this effort. That kind of thing is expensive. I nearly wasn’t prepared to pay the lousy $23 to use the dating site, let alone fork out a couple of hundred dollars to have a photo taken for it. And the real question is…is that effort worth it when I have somehow managed to meet somebody great using a photo that looks like I just got out of bed with a severe hangover.
Plenty of the profiles don’t have a photo at all, and I am certain they get their fair share of interest; I scored a couple of “kisses” from people who had no photo posted. Due to the conditions of The Project, I just didn’t respond. If you get to see a picture of me, it’s only fair to expect the same in return. I have also seen a myriad photos that were clearly taken by the person in the privacy of their own computer room, holding their camera at arms length, trying to centre themselves in the frame while trying to smile cutely as they take their own photo. Some of them aren’t bad. Other photos will be of a group of girls, the Online dater surrounded by friends with a Photoshop circle denoting the girl in question…and for one of them I remember thinking that I would like to meet the girl just to meet one or two of her more attractive friends pictured alongside her
[ Click here to read more ]
|
|
|
Add Comments
Comments (1)
Read More
Comment by Single Bloke
on Muzikal Mafia's NEW LISTENING PARTY & CONTEST
Boycott Bad Advertising
That travelling Speigeltent is amazing, I urge you all to look at that link, it is an awesome show that comes through every year for a couple of months and they just fill it with fantastic stuff - it seems to be most popular in Australia.
Voices - those artists are pretty much as distinctively Antipodean as you can get. The Finn Brothers are Kiwis, but they call Crowded House an Australian band, and their songwriting is my personal fav. A collective of female Aust artists has released an album of their songs, called "She will have her way" and it is just beautiful.
I do tend to refer to Australian music quite a bit, so I'm sorry if you have no clue what Im talking about.