A RETAIL SNOW JOB

MEDIA DECEPTION, MARKETING FLIM FLAM, and INFOMERCIAL FRAUD: A RETAIL SNOW JOB

A few days ago I was relaxing on my couch watching one of the best television shows ever....Bonanza. This long time running western tv series from the 1960's is on during the afternoon on TVLAND when most other people have jobs, me being on the Graduate Student Schedule this is early morning TV at 2pm. Bonanza, probably watched mostly by retired men getting their fix of day time masculinity with barfights, horse riding, stage coach robberies, and watching Michael Landon court young farmers daughters, this show on TVLAND probably isnt seen by many individuals like myself. Therefore the ads are the typical geared towards 60-80 year olds with Wilford Brimley checking his blood sugar, the people driving around the Grand Canyon with their Hoverrounds, and the discreetly delivered incontinence products. However, one in particular socially aware and Emerson educated graduate student has a major problem with one ad in particular........ The ad for: THE HD VISION GLASSES.

These glasses in concept are a good idea, cheaper than the "designer brands", and improved vision quality. But the Snow Job comes out once the "im gonna screw you out of your money through my brilliant ad campaign" voice states, "Just Like High Definition Television is the ultimate in viewing clarity, HD Vision makes the world come alive in brilliant defined color like never before."

High Definition Television is measured in Resolution. 1080p is currently the best available tv resolution being viewed at 1920x1080. 35mm film at the movie theatre is known as 2K or resolution 2048x1536. However, the Human eye has a resolution of 15 million variable resolution pixels which puts the human eye around 14,000 times that of High Definition Television. Thus.... What does this all mean.....that HD Vision Glasses if truly made the human eyes High Definition like "TV Quality" this would decrease the humans eye's vision over 14,000 times making anyone wearing the glasses BLIND. yes BLIND.

Why does this make me mad? Because it is exploiting a "God Term" such as High Definition and applying it to something to sell a product...is this marketing....yes....but it's also deception.

In review:
- HD is lower quality than the human eye
- Selling Sun Glasses as HD Vision is oxymoronic especially on a Standard Def Channel
- Using a Marketing Strategy of using techy terms to assert supremecy of products is not moral but it is smart
- You can always swindle the elderly

And How does this relate to Public Affairs....with the right message...you can persuade anyone and pull a snow job....especially for trendy and "European Styled" Sun Glasses.

You're only cool if you wear sunglasses. Ask Stevie Wonder, He's the only person that would benefit from seeing in HD. But, Pardon me, but i'll stick to my Polarized Ray Bans and keep seeing at 15million pixels..thank ya.

Out.