A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

Really, that was it? That was the commercial that had activists all in a tizzy?

Almost two weeks ago, Mike Celizic (writing for NBC) announced that money is the only reason CBS would agree to air this ad: 

There is no other reason — and certainly no good reason — for anyone, including a television executive, to decide that the ethical standards which had stood for generations are suddenly no more worth preserving than that hairball the cat just coughed up.

Really? You mean commercials during the big game have NEVER challenged ethics before? Those ethical standards have stood for generations?

Let’s take a look at the other ads that have aired tonight (so far). Back in the early days of this game, I seriously doubt any TV executive would have allowed an ad with:

1. men and women parading in their underwear around the office;
2. a woman ripping her shirt off (albeit with a camisole underneath) and an address where you can view the rest (which, the company is proud to say, was banned from TV); 
3. a man falling out of a casket full of snack chips – during his funeral;
4. a group of men walking the hills without pants on;
5. a close-up of a middle-aged football player’s rump with a cheetah-print thong visible above his pants; or even
6. Betty White getting thrown into a muddy puddle.

But they probably would have allowed an ad with a football player’s mom saying how much she loves her son. Which is all this ad really says.

Signals that this web manager position you’re interviewing for might not be a good idea:

1. The receptionist gets up to help you out of your jacket and hang it up for you, but doesn’t lead you to the office for the interview. Instead, she tells you to head to the first office on the left past the copier. (She already paged the interviewer, who has apparently chosen to remain at their desk.) The office is only 40 feet from the front door.
2. Your interviewer is the VP of Finance and Administration and the CFO (one person).
3. You’re asked if you do print design, because some print designers “don’t like” doing web design, and vice versa, but they are looking for a “well-rounded” designer who will do both.
4. You’re told that they are fortunate to have a full-time IT guy on staff (but he’s not in this interview).
5. The interviewer keeps direct eye contact 95% of the time either one of you is speaking. (Awkward.)
6. The interviewer uses Google to find one of the organization’s microsites.
7. The interviewer mentions two or three times that “we’ve interviewed some good candidates” and flips through all their resumes underneath yours on the desk.
8. You’re given an assignment to complete on your own. The instructions ask for two mock-ups: one of a single-page microsite (may be a .jpg comp), and one of a companion print piece (8.5″x11″, cover and one interior page) for one of their new campaigns. You can use Lorem Ipsum for the text, since you’re not the content writer, after all.  There are also four questions you should be ready to answer when the assignment is submitted, including how much time you spent on each part, your philosophy of microsite design, your opinion of the most important elements in a web site, and which design aspects of this assignment you found most difficult.
9. You ask if there is a deadline when they’ll make a decision. The interviewer says that they hope to make a decision by the end of next week. Oh, so, could you have the assignment back by the middle of next week, then. 
10. The interviewer thanks you for coming in, but doesn’t get up. After a couple of awkward moments, you tuck your papers away, which seems to remind the interviewer to emerge from behind the desk and shake your hand.

Just had an interesting converstaion with a rep at my credit card company.

I wanted to make a balance transfer, but I didn’t see a link online to do so, and the help pages didn’t tell me what to do. So I sent a message online. The reply told me that there were “no balance transfer offers available.”

I tried to reply to the message, but kept getting an error message (maybe because I upgraded to the latest version of Java). So I called instead.

My question was, “If there are no special offers for balance transfers, does that mean I am prohibited from making any balance transfer requests at this time?”

The answer is, “Yes.” It’s not that there are no special offers available. It’s that I have not been selected to have that ability.

The interesting part to me was that accounts are selected completely at random for these balance transfer offers. According to the script provided to the phone reps,

1. The Marketing department creates a consumer profile. (The rep didn’t know how they create it; his script merely said that they do.)
2. The profile is sent to an outside agency who selects consumers (not necessarily card holders) who meet the profile.
3. The list of consumers is sent to a third party who randomly selects individuals to receive the balance transfer offer. If you’re a card holder, great. If not, you are offered the credit card along with the balance transfer.

In other words, the

1. longevity of my account,
2. current or past balance on the card,
3. current or past activity on the card; and
4. current credit rating

…do not directly affect whether I am allowed to make a balance transfer to my card.

It’s all a crapshoot.

How disappointing.

Made it to church. I’m actually early! Averaged 40 mph on the way.

It’s going to be a small crowd today, so I’m acting out of character and sitting towards the front. LOL