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Saturday, October 14, 2006
Random Thoughts

Okay, so the North Koreans have nukes, the Iranians soon will have, we're having an epidemic of school shootings, and the words "Speaker Pelosi" have a shot at being used together quite a bit next year. That shouldn't mean we stop laughing, should it? Here are some mostly apolitical morsels to assist you.


I'm briefly on vacation from my vocation, which allows extra time for avocation, to wit: blogging.

(In case you're worried, I'll retreat to normal English now and be back to normal activities tomorrow.)

The three cleverest ad campaigns I can remember are, in chronological order:

  1. The old radio and television ads for Stamps.com, featuring Bob Newhart. Does anyone know where I can get a good recording of those? Low-quality recordings of the television ads are here at YouTube. (They're good enough to convey the humor -- and you understand that, by linking to them, I'm not endorsing everything at YouTube, right?)
  2. Senator Robert Bennett's billboards, last time he ran for re-election. I understand that was a son's brainchild. I tried to imitate them in a recent local campaign.
  3. The Utah Symphony and Opera ads, which I mostly encounter on the radio and in my e-mail. Most recently, they bill La Traviata as "the original Pretty Woman," then take the thought and run with it, with delightful results. Now you can hear some of the recent ads at UtahOpera.org, which is another playful and classy move. Meanwhile, at UtahSymphony.org (for the moment), the home page features, among other things, a bust of Mozart and the caption, "Same music. Better hair." You figure it out.

While we're being clever and musical, Mormon readers with a sense of humor will appreciate this parodic account of a testimony meeting. (Mormon readers without a sense of humor, you are reading the wrong blog. You cannot possibly be happy here -- if that is your goal, which I doubt.)

Finally, you really have to see the product line at FlapArt to believe it. (Thanks to loyal reader Jon Rodeback for the link.)


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