After being such prudes for so long, credit card companies are raising their hemlines and lowering their standards. They’re actively deluging customers with credit card offers and using low teaser rates as a crooked finger. However, they’re also coming with new hidden baggage you need to watch out for, like cash back rewards that are high, but have to be opted in again every few months. [More]
marketing
Here's An Idea: Credit Union Pays Members For Using Their Debit Cards
By 11.4.11
Instead of charging customers a $5 monthly fee for using their debit cards, one credit union is actually paying its members to use their debit cards. In a direct jab against the big banks, First Community Federal Credit Union is running a promotion that lets members earn up to $5 a month for swiping their debit card. [More]
What's A McRib Made Of?
By 11.2.11
There’s no rib in a McRib. There are about 70 other ingredients. The greatest amount of them come from ground-up low-value pork trimmings mixed together with salt and water to create “meat logs” that are then carved to size. So in what forest do you find a meat log? [More]
Sending Back Protest Messages In Pre-Paid Credit Card Envelopes Isn't Going To Occupy Wall Street One Bit
By 11.2.11
A YouTube video has racked up over 300,000 hits promoting the idea that you can really mess with the banks by sending back activist messages in those pre-paid response envelopes that come with the credit card junk mail. The theory is that if enough people do it, it will force people in the bank mailrooms to have a meeting about all these Occupy Wall Street slogans showing up in their mail, and making banks engage in a dialogue with their customers, revolutionizing how they operate to a way that’s more responsive to the common good. This is a terrible idea and a waste of time. [More]
Heinz To Sell Upmarket Version Of Ketchup
By 10.26.11
Heinz didn’t get the message that it’s unfashionable to cater to the 1% crowd. They’re coming out with a 58th variety of ketchup. A kind for fancypants. It’s more “upscale” because it uses balsamic vinegar instead of white wine vinegar. [More]
Credit Cards To Sell Your Buying History So Online Advertisers Can Target You More Precisely
By 10.25.11
How about a world where you swipe for a Big Mac and then the next time you go online you get an ad for Slimfast? That’s the big idea behind Visa and Mastercard’s new business foray: selling off all your swipe data to online advertisers so they can more precisely target their ads to what’s going on in your skull. It’s another nail in the coffin for the quaint fiction we call “online privacy.” [More]
The McRib Is Back, Temporarily
By 10.24.11
The McRib is a flirtatious little pile of pork. On the menu, then off again, then up to individual franchises to decide whether to offer it, the boneless pork patty on a sesame bun is going to be back at McDonald’s again starting today through November 14th. [More]
Dish Hard-Sells Customers At Blockbusters
By 10.20.11
Dish Network is making use of its new toy, Blockbuster, by coaxing customers at the rental stores into a lounge in an attempt to sign them up for service. Those who sit through the pitch receive a free month of Blockbuster By Mail and a free game or movie rental that day. [More]
Some See Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Stuff As Counterproductive Gimmickery
By 10.18.11
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as you can tell from pink gloves worn by football players, pink drinks offered at restaurants and pink luxury items for sale wherever you look. While it’s laudable that so many industries that seem to have little to do with cancer prevention are lending a hand, some see the flood of pink as disingenuous marketing that does little to fund cancer research. [More]
Vicks Accidentally Says It's Been Around For 1,000 Years
By 10.13.11
A typo on the Vicks website makes it look as if Vicks is saying it’s been around for 1,000+ years. Yes, indeed, perhaps what really ended the Dark Ages was the discovery of Vaporub. With it, William the Conqueror’s congestion and coughing from hanging out in musty castles could be relieved and he could get on with the business of invading England and establishing a more unified and stable feudal system of governance. [More]
Walmart Launching 3500 Store-Specific Facebook Pages To Promo Local Deals
By 10.12.11
The one major criticism I’ve always leveled at Walmart is that the chain is just too small. If they were really doing things right, all our cities would be enclosed and connected in one long continuous Walmart where all our desires can be met at everyday low prices. To edge closer to that utopia, Walmart is launching several new Facebook pages. 3,500 of them. Each is pegged to a specific local store and will serve up deals just for that store. [More]
Verizon Internet To Share Your Location With Advertisers So You'll Get Ads "Of More Interest"
By 10.5.11
As a favor to you, Verizon internet says they’re going to start sharing your local geographical location to advertisers so you’ll get ads “of more interest.” For instance, “a pizza chain may want to deliver their ad to give a special offer to people living in a particular area.” Here’s how to opt out. [More]
Watch A Dancing Patrick Swayze Shill For Pabst Blue Ribbon in 1979
By 10.5.11
It may be difficult to believe now, but there was once a time when people appreciated Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in a non-ironic fashion. That was around 1979, evidently, when this ad featuring a catchy faux-Bee Gees tune and a fresh-faced young Patrick Swayze hit the airwaves. [More]
Banks Marketing 1% APR Bank Accounts As "High-Yield"
By 10.4.11
Considering how “high-yield” savings accounts used to give returns of 4-5%, reader Phil thinks it’s a bit disingenuous for banks to continue marketing them as such when the rates are only 1%. He sent in a picture of a recent piece of junk mail he got from American Express to illustrate. [More]
A Best Buy Flyer From '96
By 9.20.11
A Best Buy flyer from 1996 has resurfaced and it’s full of hilarious old technology and high prices. Gotta snag me a copy of Muppet Treasure Island for $34.99! [More]
Get $3.99 In Oprah Free KFC Coupon Debacle Lawsuit
By 9.12.11
Two years ago, Oprah promoted on her show a KFC coupon for a free grilled chicken meal. Now the class action lawsuit the resulted after that ended in tears has settled. [More]
Military Branches License Branded Cologne, Hot Sauce
By 9.9.11
The military has marched into the retail sector armed with an arsenal of unorthodox products, ranging from cologne and walking canes to hot sauce. If you’d like to smell like a Marine, you can purchase a $45 bottle of Devil Dog cologne. You can also spice up your food with some drops from a $7 bottle of U.S. Marine Corps Hot Sauce, which its bottle declares “Will Make You Stand At Attention.” [More]
The Silly Hat Shop
By 9.8.11
Recently, a hat boutique opened up near me. In need of a device to block the sun’s glare without interfering with the visual quality of the world around me, I stopped in and bought a baseball cap. A fancy one. Everything was as pleasant as can be about the experience, but I was amused by the number of misinformed marketing gimmicks they trotted out at the sale’s completion, like a frequent buyer card. Buy 10 hats, get the 11th free. Really? They’re not ice cream cones. [More]
