Tag: Stupid people

Again?

Old Fartism, Travels

And the hits just keep on coming:

Southwest Airlines planes were grounded nationwide Tuesday for what the carrier called an intermittent technology issue.

But think of all the money they saved by not upgrading their systems for well over a decade…

I can’t really cast nasturtiums, though.  My laptop is five years old, I still use Windoze 10 and I haven’t downloaded upgrades to my 8-year-old printer, ever.  My car has nearly 130,000 miles on it, my 1911 has fired off close to 30,000 rounds and I still watch DVDs (never got into that blu-ray nonsense).  I even read Dead Tree books, not their electronic versions on Kindle, and I still love butter-fried eggs even though they’ll probably kill me.  The catalog of things in my life that have never been upgraded is voluminous.

But I’m just one guy, and not a billion-dollar corporation responsible for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From the Knuckledragger:

“You know, a wise person would take a look at the [Bud Light] ad and the losses that Anheuser-Busch has taken, put two and two together and then realize that the huge majority of Americans are sick and tired of this tranny bullshit.”

Silly rabbit:  that assumes the existence of wisdom in Corporate America.

Unaffected, Yet Still Amused

Corporate Wokism, Marketing / Advertising

As someone who has never drunk more than a mouthful of “light” beer (true story:  I tasted a Lite when I first arrived here, didn’t finish the drink, and never touched another of the type ever again), the brouhaha surrounding Bud Light’s marketing decision to elevate some girlyboy to be the brand spokesman has left me totally unmoved — well, apart from bursting out in derisive laughter, that is.

I don’t have a sexy MBA from some elite academic institution, so I’m hardly one to judge this latest example of woke stupidity [redundancy alert].  Nevertheless, here are some core principles I’ve discovered along the way, in a career that spanned over three decades of marketing and advertising.

Marketing Rule #1:  You never neglect (never mind alienate) your existing customer base.  They are the ones who pay your salaries and keep your production lines moving.

Marketing Rule #2:  Once your brand is established, you never chase after “new” customers, but concentrate on getting your existing customers to use your product more.  This is both intuitive and cost-effective, except perhaps to an inexperienced person with a sexy MBA from some elite academic institution.

Marketing Rule #3:  You never make radical changes to your marketing or advertising strategy, especially when it comes into direct conflict with the philosophy of the first two rules.

Marketing Rule #4:  You never let the latest “thing” drive changes to your marketing strategy, especially if that latest “thing” conflicts directly with your brand’s core principle (Unique Selling Proposition, ethos, whatever) and customer base.

And for senior management:  if anyone in your marketing structure — executives, ad agency, promotion company, whatever — suggests anything that flies in the face of the above four principles, fire them immediately before they get to make those changes.

Understand that they’re not being fired for making a mistake.  They’re being fired for deliberately ignoring the canon of the marketplace.

Being Played?

Politics

I enjoy reading Ann Coulter’s posts, by and large, because she’s so often correct despite her terminology and manner — and let’s be honest, getting fired by the milquetoasts at NRO has to be some kind of a badge of honor, right?

And yes, she occasionally gets out of control, but then again, so do I.

Here’s her latest opinion:

A month ago, things were looking bad for the Democrats.

Immediately after Trump announced for president last November, he may as well have gone into the witness protection program. Even Fox News cut away from his announcement speech. He had to have dinner with a noted Hitler enthusiast to get any attention, and, when he spoke at CPAC in February, the room was half-empty.

Looming before them was the threat from Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis. He was beating Trump in the presidential polls without even announcing. He’d scored victory after victory against Democrats and won his reelection bid — in a purple state! — by 20 points, despite attacks from Trump.

Against DeSantis’ smarts and energy, the Democrats would be running President Senile Dementia and a vice president whose sole credentials are that she is black and a woman.

They had only one hope: Get Trump the nomination.

…and her argument is quite compelling.

Finally, I know that the bony Ann is a New England blueblood and therefore despises Trump.  But her assessment of his actual achievements is quite accurate, and her portrayal of the Republicans as The Stupid Party is more than accurate:  it’s inside the X-ring at the very intersection of the X.

In this, she’s of a kind with the always-irritating but maddeningly-correct David Cole at Taki’s.  Dealing with both of them is an object lesson in ignoring the messenger and concentrating on the message.

Gooder And Harder

Elections, Third World

…to quote Insty.  I see that Chicago has replaced Abject Failure Lori Lightweight with her male counterpart Brandon Johnson in the mayoral elections just held.

Of course, things are going to go from worse to worser:

Johnson is a paid agitator for the teachers union and a ‘defund the police’ type.

…and Chicago slithers ever closer to the abyss within the abyss into which it’s already fallen.  Just watch as the exodus flow of businesses and their executives changes into a flood, and the city moves closer to Detroit-style bankruptcy and failure.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of socialist assholes.

I note that the vote total was just over half a million people out of a voting population of over two million, so clearly 75% of Chicago residents just don’t give a fuck.  And there ya go.