Amusing things about television
Aug. 23rd, 2007 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI don't watch much television. Mainly films, and the occasional series. Last night I saw a few other things as I changed channels which were amusing, in a despairing or a good way.
(1) The announcer, describing what was coming next, used "keanu reaves" and "charisma" in the same sentence. Now, I like some of his films a lot. In the Matrix, and Point Break, and Constantine, he fulfilled the role perfectly. But "charisma" is not what I would have described as his selling point. Aren't there advertising standards or something?
(2) Apparently, there is a film about a haunted hotel room, based on a story by someone-or-other (probably Stephen King). And in promotion, the channel is running a "contest", which rewards someone who can remember what the last trailer said, or google the author (OK, I failed, but if I cared, I would have remembered the number of the room.) with...
"Spending a night in a real haunted hotel room." Isn't that both unattractive (what with getting killed and all) and false advertising?
(3) Film four has a horror season too. Night watch is a horror? No its not! It's a little dark in places, but no more so than Krull.
(4) OTOH, the inside story of motorway was wonderful. The dramatic music over the slow revelation of... unified road signs made it all worthwhile :)
(5) But on BBC there was a terrifying program. There was a reserved bespectacled academic narrating from a boat as a man and a woman jumped over the side into freezing water, constantly explaining what was happening to their bodies as they reported "it's like knives slashing my feet" and "it's hard to breathe" and "I'm losing control of my limbs"
Apparently they had good reasons for this, but it just sounded like a mad scientist...
(6) There's a bank advert, following the new trend of showing how crap competitors are by showing a fat guy offering buzz instead of understanding what his customers want.
Apparently they offer spurious gifts to new university students to lure them into signing up for an account with *them*. This one doesn't do that, it offers a young person's railcard[1]. Isn't it bad practice for adverts to badmouth something with one side of your face and do it with the other? Someone might notice.
[1] Save 1/3 for five years iirc. That's a reasonably cool inducement, but it's still an inducement, rather than, say, good interest rates and helpful staff. They certainly don't mention that the subsidy isn't coming from them and the cash value is £100.
(1) The announcer, describing what was coming next, used "keanu reaves" and "charisma" in the same sentence. Now, I like some of his films a lot. In the Matrix, and Point Break, and Constantine, he fulfilled the role perfectly. But "charisma" is not what I would have described as his selling point. Aren't there advertising standards or something?
(2) Apparently, there is a film about a haunted hotel room, based on a story by someone-or-other (probably Stephen King). And in promotion, the channel is running a "contest", which rewards someone who can remember what the last trailer said, or google the author (OK, I failed, but if I cared, I would have remembered the number of the room.) with...
"Spending a night in a real haunted hotel room." Isn't that both unattractive (what with getting killed and all) and false advertising?
(3) Film four has a horror season too. Night watch is a horror? No its not! It's a little dark in places, but no more so than Krull.
(4) OTOH, the inside story of motorway was wonderful. The dramatic music over the slow revelation of... unified road signs made it all worthwhile :)
(5) But on BBC there was a terrifying program. There was a reserved bespectacled academic narrating from a boat as a man and a woman jumped over the side into freezing water, constantly explaining what was happening to their bodies as they reported "it's like knives slashing my feet" and "it's hard to breathe" and "I'm losing control of my limbs"
Apparently they had good reasons for this, but it just sounded like a mad scientist...
(6) There's a bank advert, following the new trend of showing how crap competitors are by showing a fat guy offering buzz instead of understanding what his customers want.
Apparently they offer spurious gifts to new university students to lure them into signing up for an account with *them*. This one doesn't do that, it offers a young person's railcard[1]. Isn't it bad practice for adverts to badmouth something with one side of your face and do it with the other? Someone might notice.
[1] Save 1/3 for five years iirc. That's a reasonably cool inducement, but it's still an inducement, rather than, say, good interest rates and helpful staff. They certainly don't mention that the subsidy isn't coming from them and the cash value is £100.