Advertising gone bezerk

Last night, I took in an excellent play called The Elephant Man with my friends Dave and Rebecca. While I was out, I got a phone call, as the beeping diltone told me. I went to check my messages this morning (ooh! ooh! Somebody loves me! Who could it be?). I was disgusted as I listened to the recorded voice: "Hi! This is Mike from Trashbusters. Do you have any old furniture or other large items you'd like to get rid of? We're going to be in you area soon and so we'd like to offer you a special deal...."

Excuse me??? You're leaving an ADVERTISEMENT on my ANSWERING machine? Hello?

Automated telemarketing technology is geting smarter and smarter, allowing comanies to annoy prospective clients more and more. These recordings even know to start after the "beep." (I wish the automated library "Your requested book is in" system knew how to do that.)

But even more than knowing to wait for the beep, some sytems even know my NAME. It's civic election time here in BC, and I got a PERSONAL phone call from the outgoing mayor of Vancouver left on my phone. "Hello Hillary. This is Mayor Larry Campbell. I'd like to urge you to vote for my colleague Jim Green...yadda yadda yadda"

What the???

You nkow, ads on TV, in the newspaper, billboards, fine. I've even resigned myself to 15 minutes of ads (not previews, ADS) before a movie. But advertisements left on my answering machine???

I call Trashbusters and told them to remove my phone number from their call out list immediately. Funny, I seem to recall doing that a few months ago when they did the same thing. I also told them that I will never EVER use their service because of the way they advertise. RAR!

Oh, and while I'm on this rant, let's talk about the 40 foot high, 150 foot long billboard barge Nike put up to be paraded back and forth in the water off all of Vancouver's beaches this summer. WHAT? Are you kidding me? Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. What sunbather wants thier view of mountains and ocean obstructed by a great huge honking black Nike Billboard??? UG-LY!

And there you have it, my Saturday rant.