Tricky Commercials

Not many commercials are eye-catching enough in the middle of a sitcom, but I need write something in English.  Let me talk about two tricky ads that I recently saw on TV.

The first one is Quiznos Sub’s ad for its Prime Rib Cheesesteak, which could be found here (Windows Media) or here (QuickTime).  Basically it compares itself (perhaps exaggeratedly but I’m just not sure) with Subway’s cheesesteak.  I find it amusing as it reminds me of my happy kindergarten life.  This is straight and simple (Quiznos is definitely not the first to use this strategy, though), and I am not saying it is bad.  It is just, you know, funny.  Look at those people in the ad.

Yet the more amusing part is the slogan “If you’re not 100% satisfied, you’ll get a free sub.”  It sounds so confident that people tend to think its quality is guaranteed.  But wait, a free sub?  If I am not 100% satisfied, why would I bother to get another free sub?  Perhaps I prefer my money back.  Oh, what if you are only not 100% satisfied about one particular sub and want a change?  But it is no longer attractive as it sounds.  Maybe it means I could buy two subs at one price.  Well, check my experiences to cancel services in the U.S. to see what is waiting for me when I actually do something guaranteed by but unfavorable to the business operators.  And if I intend to buy two subs, this does not sound like I am not 100% satisfied, right?

So there is another ad by match.com, a dating site.  Its website slogan is something like “if you don’t meet someone special within six months, you’ll get six months free.”  Wow, sounds great?  Most of us might think the latter “six months” refer to the former “six months” so that one either finds someone or does not have to pay.  But it actually means “six [additional] months” if you click “learn more” twice on their website (it seems that the TV slogan clearly includes the “additional”).  [EDIT: No.  The TV version is the same.]  Anyway, “six months free” equal to money back but “six additional months free” mean nothing.  You could still pay and fail to find someone special.  The slogan does not even imply any sense of half price because dating service is different from Internet service for which every minute counts.  Rather, it means any customer pays the regular price for 12 months and if he or she finds someone special within the first six months the service for the next six months is terminated.  I know this interpretation could be weakened, but this is how I find the ad tricky.

*Originally blogged here.

“Anonymous Lawyer” (the blog)

I enjoyed reading this for a couple of hours today, finished archives from March to May, 2004, almost forgot to have my $3.50 pasta down there in the building, and absolutely ignored the noise of the annoying Gestetner 7502 in my freezing humble room.

It is just fantastic!

The satirical tone of Anonymous is my favorite.  The U.S. “biglaw” culture is anatomized subtly through the monolog-like weblog of a hiring partner from a big law firm in a major city.  It is certainly a fiction, but after reading only a small portion of the whole blog, I bet most of the legal professionals in this circle could not disavow such a realistic picture of the bloody brutal inhumane aspect of the six-figure paychecks.  Nevertheless, the blog is well-balanced so that readers might avoid a hasty conclusion that biglaw just sucks.  There are happy people there; not many, but there are some; not the happiness that you would like to have, but some people may love it.  For either law students or not-so-senior attorneys, the blog sheds light on numerous quirky situations that may be inevitable in a big law firm.  More importantly, you get to know what may actually happen beneath the surface.  Though the extent of such enlightenment might be limited because the blog is after all fictional, it is still valuable as you would hardly have any partner willing to give you such candid information.

The picture of legal profession is often distorted or misunderstood by the outside public.  Many know attorneys get well-paid; few know more.  I would highly recommend this blog and I will finish it to see if I would buy the book based on this blog.

The blog started before I arrived in the U.S., and I regret that I could not have read it any earlier.  Actually I happened to know this blog through the useful but semi-deserted Blawg Wisdom.  I happened to have read the author’s blog (now shift to another blog) on law school life.  The author is a recent law graduate yet I really appreciate his insight of the legal career.

Personally, I wish I could write English well.  I know it is hard for me, a Mandarin Orange.  Anyhow I love reading Anonymous Lawyer.

*Originally blogged here.

Welcome To My New Blawg!

As you may see it, I finally decide to open a new blawg here with WordPress.  Although Blogger’s simplistic style looks cool enough, I could hardly resist the much more powerful features and flexible options of WordPress that enable perhaps the maximum control any blogger would love to have.

Although I name it a “blawg”, I reserve my right to post on other non-law subjects.

Anyway, it is another good start, isn’t it?