My Online Pet Peeves

Aside from the usual suspects of multiple pop-up adverts that never seem to stop and flash-based adverts that look integrated within the web page but manage to float around and suddenly enlarge to cover up the entire article, I have a couple other pet peeves that I wonder if anybody else shares my frustration.

As you may already know, I am a member of the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. I have yet to leverage their potential to meet other girls, and I sometimes wonder why I'm on MySpace period. As for Facebook, most of my friends are mostly all high school friends with whom I have lost touch in over 10 years and finally reconnected.

Anyway, Facebook allows you to access their speed-centric version of the website for free when you visit their site from a cell phone. Likewise, you get to choose between that and the full-blown version of the website if you have a smart enough smartphone like my Nokia N91 or the Apple iPhone. But MySpace? Unless you're lucky like me and other advanced Nokia and iPhone owners, you can't even get to MySpace by mobile means! Instead, you have to pay three dollars a month to Cingular-is-now-the-new-AT&T to get the watered-down version of MySpace! This pet peeve is such because of two reasons: 1) same reason as that of reason number eight of why I hate the iPhone, and 2) have you noticed how heavily subsidized MySpace is by advertisements?!? Why would anyone still want to pay three bucks after having to put up with the gazillion adverts that litter MySpace? I'm not targeting MySpace, but using it as a prime example of the many other websites that have this kind of business practices.

The second online pet peeve is how they collect information when you register for things online. This morning, I tried to register in a Sweepstakes at Mercury for some neat prizes, but I was having a difficulty submitting the registration form. Click on the picture below to see the full details of the "error" and the form I was submitting (personal data changed to protect my privacy):


What in the name of hell is that error all about? There is no red asterisk next to the email address field, meaning that field is not a requirement. I filled that in so that I could get notified by email if I win. But what prevented me from submitting the form was that I had to click on the checkbox asking if I want to be notified of new product information, offers and incentives! What? Why even provide the choice of opting out if I am being forced into it just so I can enter some stupid sweepstakes? This kind of marketing practice is not limited to sweepstakes administered for huge companies like Ford's Mercury. Remember the Put a Gun to My Head, Won't You blog in which I was forced to receive information from LaSalle Bank? That was while trying to register to run in the Shamrock Shuffle 8K race, which happened to be sponsored by LaSalle Bank! Let's see... If you want to participate in a race sponsored by us, you must endure the bombardment of product and service offerings literature from us! No if's, and's, or but's!

Oh, I can only feel my blood pressure rising, thanks to some shrewd marketing kid who don't know how to make good adverts in the first place and must resort to such brute force. Sigh...

Sopranos Spoof!

I’ve always thought that Hillary Rodham Clinton was a dry woman, but someone in her camp was able to push an idea and get Hillary’s buy-in. Specifically, the way the Clinton campaign will announce the winner of their campaign theme song.

Well... A winner has been selected. It is Celine Dion’s You and I. Kind of lame, if you ask me. But the video used as a prelude to the announcement was quite funny, albeit its cheesiness and low quality frame switching from shot to shot. Go to Hillary Clinton’s campaign website and click play on the video underneath “AND THE WINNER IS...”

I’m still on the fence on whether it is funny and/or clever, or downright lame altogether. Who would’ve thought of tying a mobster popular culture into a presidential bid campaign? But one thing’s for sure though: Both Bill and Hillary should stick to their day jobs if they ever want to entertain thoughts of going into the acting business.

Or you can check out the YouTube below:

Swim with Condoms?

Okay... So I was screwing around on MySpace today during an I B M All Hands conference call. It was something about organization restructuring or something else. Funny, as I have been with I B M three weeks shy of a year, and we had undergone a couple reorganizations during my still-short tenure. Naturally, I was bored during the call because I kind of got the gist of it by skimming ahead on the PowerPoint presentation. So what did I do while some vice president was talking? I logged into MySpace.

Whoa! One of the dynamic advertisement banners on the top of my MySpace page was for an event benefiting the Manhattan Island Foundation. The actual event itself? Open water swimming in the waters of New York City. This, of course, caused some curiosity on my part on a couple points.


First point. MySpace has always been a huge assault on localized advertisement for a long time now. When I traveled to Los Angeles on business, it seemed like MySpace knew I was in LA, because all the adverts were related to the greater Los Angeles area. Find Singles in L.A.! Live Chat with Singles in L.A.! And likewise, when I’m back in Chicago, different adverts would pop up, all relating to the Chicagoland. Given that, why the hell am I being shown a New York advert?

Second point. I got to thinking more in depth about this particular advertised event. When my friend Katie was kayaking the Chicago River, she expressed fears of turning over and falling into the river not because she couldn’t swim, but because of the filth she had to paddle through: a used condom floating here and a dead rat floating there. And add to the misfortune I had of growing up along with popular culture as portrayed on television shows, like The Soprano’s and CSI: NY. And what kind of imagination do you get of swimming in the open waters of New York City? Trash, used condoms and dead mafia mobsters all floating around! Not to mention Godzilla lurking unsuspectingly underneath!

Those thoughts simply gave me the chills! I’d like to see what kind of turnout that event will have. I for one will be hesitant to go swim in the open waters of New York City!

An Anatomy of Grey's Anatomy

An Anatomy of Grey's Anatomy

One Sunday evening years ago, I was flipping through the channels in search of the brand new series House. For some reason I thought it was showing at 21:00 on Sunday, even though I very well knew that Fox Broadcasting broadcasts its nightly news at that hour in central time zone. Nonetheless, I thought I found the right channel, because there was this show with a bunch of people in medical coats. That must be it, the oft-talked show that has been generating buzz all week long.

An hour later, I was puzzled as all heck. Where was the bearded, gimpy doctor that all the critiques raved about? It turned out that I had just watched the pilot episode of Grey's Anatomy. Stranger yet, I actually liked this new show. Ever since that day, I have been watching Grey's Anatomy religiously. It is funny and catchy. I liked how Meredith Grey narrates throughout the show explaining the little meanings of life as she saw it through the experiences of her life and her friends', hence the title.

Although Grey's Anatomy was never my absolute number one favorite show, it was high up there on my list along with 24 and CSI. Of course now I don't watch CSI anymore due to last year's Thursday primetime shakeup.

Fast forward a couple years from 2005, a smooth 51 episodes later. I still like the show. Sure, it no longer has the same cachet as it carried in the first season. It still is funny at times, but it seems like they have shaken up the staff writers. Either that, or it could be possible that ABC guided the show's existing staff writers in a new direction after finding out that their audience comprised a significantly more proportion of young women than previously projected in target audience research. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that in the advent of character development and its intricate relationships, the show has evolved slightly into a medical drama version of Desperate Housewives. It is now an extremely girly show!

Of course, that didn't bother me a whole lot. At least not enough for me to completely dump the show. I just wonder now what will the staff writers do once all the characters have slept with each and every other characters. Will the producers bring more hot guest stars like they did with Chris O'Donnel last season?

In any case, let's get back to the point. Another reason why I liked this show outside of its artistic values is because it had very minimal product placement. Compare it to Seinfeld or Friends, Grey's Anatomy is the untainted virgin free of corporate product placement. Of course I don't consider medical equipment really a product placement when the premise of the show is set in a hospital setting. And GE has been good with not slapping their oversized brand icon on every medical equipment prop. In fact, I hardly ever see its brand at all, except during the closing credits.

Well, this virgin is no more. You, like I and many other fellow human beings, have gone to hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices countless of times. So why don't you think back of hospital and clinic surroundings as a reference? What do you remember most about the decors on such walls? For me, it has mostly been informational diagrams of certain anatomic parts, like the reproductive systems, lungs, etc. Sure, these posters were provided by the pharmaceutical companies. For example, there might be a huge poster showing the anatomies of both a healthy sinus and one that has severe allergies, with a small line at the very bottom indicating lightly that the poster was provided by Nasonex. In other words, minimal advertising in the hospitals due to doctors' code of ethics.

Where am I going with this? When I was catching up with Grey's Anatomy recently when I finally watched the "Wishin' and Hopin'" episode, something caught my eye that really disturbed me. I stopped the frame and looked hard. I dug deep into the recesses of my subconscious mind so that I may put a finger on it. Here is the frame I am talking about:

Notice anything strange? No? Look over Meredith's shoulder on her left (our right). Yeah, over there, the big blue sign. That extremely oversized image. I mean, look at it! It is just as big as that janitor's cart? Do you recognize the sign? I didn't initially. But it took me a long time to figure out. Since I'm not a woman, I know little about birth control. I mean, I know the medical concepts surrounding it and how they function in a woman's body depending on the general types. But I surely didn't know the popular brands out there. After much research, I finally found it!


Ring a bell? That thing on the show is a striking resemblance to a logo of a birth control device magnified hundredfold! Watch the regular advertisement on the air here.

Ugh!!! Grey's Anatomy has finally snuck in a huge product placement! The show is no longer pure, and it is a little bit upsetting. Now I just hope that the show is not going down a slippery hill and maintain its good qualities.

Do You Remember That?

Alternate Title: J-Ho's Top Three Super Bowl XLI Adverts.

Invariably, the day after Super Bowl Sunday at the "water cooler" always involves talking about two things: 1) The football game, and 2) The Super Bowl adverts. Well, I've covered the game already, so here's on to the adverts.

Was it just me, or did anybody else notice that there weren't any true standout adverts this year? Of course Pepsi, Coke and Bud Light were present, but surprisingly missing were Proctor & Gamble and Unilever. Even more surprising is the fact that Cargill and Flomax were present. It was especially disappointing that there were a lot of recycled, previously-ran adverts from some of the big players. What was up with that?

But what was truly sad is the 60 second spot dedicated to Revlon's "Not Fade Away." After that, I simply expected a Pearl tampon appearance from Tampax, or Maxi Pad adverts from Kotex. Luckily, neither happened.

Despite the lack of truly memorable adverts that I found appealing, there were some I thought were funny, which I subsequently liked. Here is J-Ho's Top Three favorite adverts of the evening.

1. "Live the Flavor" from Doritos—This advert is awesome! Sure, it is a little bit cheesy, but you've got to give it props considering it was made by five kids no older than 22 years old, shot in four days, for a total cost of $12.79. The awesomeness alone far overlooked the mere fact that this was a recycled advert that was previously shown.

(Official link here should the YouTube copy be taken down in the near future.)

2. "Not What It Seems" from FedEx Ground—This advert was clearly funny and memorable, despite the fact it employed low-key brain power for its humor.

(Official link here should the YouTube copy be taken down in the near future.)

3. "Classroom" by Bud Light—Okay, making fun of foreigners is old, not to mention a little bit culturally insensitive. But for being a foreigner myself, or semi-foreigner for that matter, I have all the power and ability to rate this as one of my favorites, because I can so totally relate!

(Official link here should the YouTube copy be taken down in the near future.)

Obviously it was really tough for me to come up with my own top three adverts, as there were some other ones I wish I could include. Hence, my Honorable Mentions below. These adverts deserve a second look or chance, and may very well have made the Top Three list should any of aforementioned adverts not aired.

<> "Chest Hair" from Snickers—Who doesn't enjoy a little bit of a Lady and the Tramp moment? The only reason why this was not in J-Ho's Top Three list is because it plays off of a sick, mental ailment among society at large: homophobia. This just furthers peoples' negative attitude towards gay people, when we should be moving forward out of bigotry.

(Official link here should the YouTube copy be taken down in the near future.)

<> "Clydesdale 'Spot'" from Budweiser—Yes, J-Ho can have a soft and sensitive side, and this advert totally appealed to that side. Touching and heartwarming, the only reason why this isn't in the Top Three list is because it wasn't manly enough, in terms of the context of the main attraction: Football.

(Official link here should the YouTube copy be taken down in the near future.)

Update 2007.01.05-16:51 : Ah, behold the power of the Internet. I finally found the "Clydesdale 'Spot'" commercial for Budweiser, thus the addition of the video to this blog. Enjoy!

If I lived in Germany...

If I lived in Germany and need to join a gym or fitness club, I think I'll choose Leo's Sports Club, hands down!

Sweet fruit of the loom!!!

I think I'm dumping my FTL and Hanes undies for chic Danish brand JBS. Despite the fact I was a bit offended by the stereotype of men they tried to put forward. I mean, I'm sure most men behave like that, but certainly not me! But one thing is true though. I don't want to look at naked men!