Can't Beat a Real Ad

I'm a bit of an amateur advertising analyst (I guess that has to do with my career working in marketing), so going thru my old pile of stuff in my closet has been a fun trip for me.

I came across this beaut below in a Phillies Scorecard Magazine from 1991, and will continue to bring up other ones from that era in future posts.  So this one comes from Coca-Cola, a brand that has always been a leading advertiser in various media, tossing around big bucks for plastering its name everywhere and anywhere.

I just find it terribly ironic that the slogan of this ad is "Can't Beat the Real Thing" and yet they have a photo of some fake baseball pitcher with a cheap, puffy, no-logo'd hat and try to pull it off as "the real thing" of watching a baseball game.  Meanwhile, why is the shortstop or second baseman standing ON TOP of second base in the background during the pitch? 

This ad is now 20 years old, but it sure seems light years away from today's marketing from big brands like Coke.  And I guess it could be one reason by they no longer use the "Can't Beat the Real Thing" slogan, since they pretty much beat themselves on this one.

Shopping for a Mystery

Ah yes, one of my favorite "stowaways" that got, umm, stowed away in my closet for a few years...

Some background:

Several years ago, a co-worker of mine came up to me and had a look as though she just won the lottery. She showed me a letter she received in the mail, which came with a check for nearly $4,000.  The letter, which appears below, informed my colleague that she was being invited to become a mystery shopper to earn more income.  The concept of mystery shopping has been around a long time, and is a legitimate job that checks up on the customer service of retail stores and other companies, though unfortunately many scam artists have resorted to promoting this job as a way to swindle unsuspecting victims. And that's where this tale continues.

The letter depicts how the job is supposed to work-- in a nutshell a legitimate-looking check is mailed to the supposed mystery shopper employee, which the employee then cashes in to buy goods at various stores, and then returns a designated amount back to the employer.  In other words, the victim thinks he or she is getting free merchandise plus a salary for going out to shop (can't beat that, right?!?), but the reality is that the check will bounce, which you won't find out until after sending a large chunk of your own money back to this fake company.  Follow this link to read another writeup about the so-called "Retail Tracking Market Research" company behind this letter.

The sad part is that many people have fallen victim to this scam, and if it weren't for my colleague bringing it in to ask me what I thought and subsequently heard the truth, she probably would have gotten suckered into it as well. 

But the victimizing part of it aside, the letter below is, pardon the pun... priceless.  It's a wonderful example of English grammar gone wrong plus shady instructions to boot.  This combination, in and of itself, should tip people off to its being a phony operation, but, I guess that's not always the case.  In any event, I hope you enjoy this masterpiece as much as I did.  Happy shopping!

"Maalox Moment"

My fellow Philly sports fans know the "Maalox Moment" all too well.  Thought this was fitting, as such.  

This ad comes from a 1990 Phillies game day Scorecard Magazine.  

Welcome to my blog...

From a 1990 Phillies Magazine Scorecard, I thought this was a fitting image to kick things off.  By the way, I love the symmetry of the Phanatic in green in the foreground sitting with a slouch, and the gentleman in blue in the background with the same pose, and, dare I say, a similar body composition.