flights

Is it really too much trouble to add flavor to your water after you pour it?

I was busy washing dishes while my girlfriend was watching TV in the background (yeah, that’s how things roll at my house), when a commercial for PUR Flavored Water Filters came on. I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t want to believe my ears. Once, under similar circumstances I’d mis-heard a commercial for “Immodium EZ Chews” as “Immodium Easy Cheese” (which actually makes some sense), so it wouldn’t be the first time I made up a fictional product based on partially overheard background TV.

But alas, this one is real, and quick perusal of the blogopolis reveals that the proletariat (as Tony would say) is in favor of this one…

I am interested in trying Pur flavored water from my tap at home. Where can I purchase the filter? Thank you.

I really want this! I have the regular PUR filtration system, and now I want the flavor one!!! I can’t find it anywhere though. Where is a place to pick one up?

I’m looking into getting this. My brother goes through a case of water every 3 days and that’s pushing it. Besides I need to drink more and this would get me started as I do like the Dasani flavored waters.

Humanity is doomed.

Interestingly, Dr. Tanase’s blog points out a problem with the PUR flavored filters that goes beyond the sheer inanity of them:

These new “flavored” filters add two excitotoxins to your liquid nourishment – Sucralose and Acesulfame-K. And if those harmful chemicals and the 92 side effects they’re known to cause (like these) weren’t enough, they also added a yummy dose of antifreeze (propylene glycol) to the mix.

Yum.

Am I the only one who wants to punch my TV whenever I see Chad on those Alltel commercials? He reminds me of the pretty rich boy from every teen movie – the one who dates the popular girl, drives a fancy car and treats everyone around him like shit. It doesn’t help that the other characters in the commercials are the kinds of lovable geeks we remember fondly from those same movies.

Wouldn’t the Alltel commercials be much better if the archetypes were reversed – one scrappy geek vs. the big popular kids – and we could root for the underdog? Wouldn’t that make much more sense, since Alltel is an underdog company in its industry?

Even Alltel seems to sort of think so, based on the fact that the geeks (who represent other mobile phone companies) are the main focus of each commercial – because they’re funny – while Chad gets barely a frame and has almost no lines.

I’ve been seeing a lot of advertisements for cars that feature voice recognition technology. Like this clever one for Ford’s SYNC:

Or this one for the Ford Focus:

I enjoy these commercials, but I’m not buying what they’re selling. SYNC might be cool, and it could even save my life by automatically dialing 911 after an accident.The thing is, I could talk to my car too if I wanted to. But I don’t. I’d feel like a complete jackass talking to my car. Is that weird?

This reminds me of some focus groups I helped run about six years ago when I was working for Vodafone. We had people evaluate a variety of smart phones and PDA devices, using them to interact with various applications, send and receive text messages and just make phone calls. People appeared to love the PDAs for their big screens and QWERTY keyboards, but when all was said and done, these were their least favorite devices.

The big displays, keyboards and loads of cool features were all trumped by the fact that people felt stupid holding these big clunky gadgets up to their ears while making phone calls.