Ever have that foggy mental feeling when you can't quite remember what day of the week it is? I settled on Friday only through the knowledge that I'm doing cappuccino with Mandy de Waal at 10:00 this morning. I think I need a four day week!
Had a total gross-out 'Oh my God!' moment on opening my least-favourite newspaper this morning. Look at the picture. It tells its own terrible story. I'm left in awe that a 'civilised culture' as old as China is still caught in such a hideous time-warp of habits. Ugh!
On a contrapuntal but less ghastly foodie note, Woolworths stores have been out of my dietary staple, Tofu, for 3 months. I love the store to bits and given what I've spent on fresh food with them over the years, I should probably be an honorary director by 
now. But their laudable (yet sometimes over the top) obsession with freshness ticks me off big-time when it means chronic out-of-stocks. And when they change suppliers it leads to this sort of hiatus. I almost had to apply to the UN for food assistance. I can just visualise a bulbous Hercules C30 transporter aircraft opening its tailgate over Parktown North and parachuting down a bag of whey protein powder to keep my tiny brain functioning. I also have reason to believe Woolies have changed Tofu suppliers because the texture's not the same as it was last year. Crumbly - my worst. Bugger.
Switching gears, I HATE (with a passion!) advertisers who put a price on something in an ad and then put the real price in small figures below, with some niggly little condition attached. 
Example, Game stores and 
Makro in South Africa consistently advertise computers with a price - below which, in tiny letters is the real price. That real price is conditional upon something truly dumb like purchasing an mweb dial-up Internet contract. Anyone who doesn't already have 'Net access is surely not going to be tempted by a R 1 000 pseudo-discount on a computer? When I took up the same issue with 
the Incredible Connection Group regarding their advertising, they changed their policy to make the distinction very clear. Not so Game and Makro. Onion of the week to them both.
In ethics contrast, it was refreshing to read in this morning's media that the mobile phone networks in South Africa have voluntarily agreed to go for total transparency in their advertised mobile phone contract packages. That's responsible and appropriate marketing. 'Fast' operators (in my opinion) like Game and Makro will experience a consumer backlash at some point. The days of people tolerating the wool being pulled over their eyes are gone.
Perhaps the ultimate height of chutzpah a few months ago, was an 
HP computer ad - direct to the public, in so doing screwing up their small dealer sales network - featuring a desktop computer set-up. The price was printed next to it and in the tiniest letters underneath, was printed 'price excludes monitor'. But the ad showed a monitor. That's plain dishonest - made a mental note not to go HP.
Hope y'all have a beautiful weekend with some rest and recreation as part of it. Shalom.
What a tedious blog.
Posted by: Carl | Saturday, 04 February 2006 at 15:34
Damn, Carl! I'm devastated. Just when I thought I was doin' OK. ;-)
Posted by: Clive Simpkins | Sunday, 05 February 2006 at 18:58