CIL Paints has launched Canada’s first “paint colours for men” collection called Ultimate Man Caves, designed to get men more excited about painting projects. Or, judging by the chosen names, at least to get the Canadian paint company some free publicity. And it’s working! Continue reading
My favourite (and only) daughter Larissa is getting married in August, oh joy! This happy occasion, of course, means many memorable moments this year, including my best so far: our mother-daughter time spent picking out The Dress. The price of wedding gowns (in case you haven’t set foot in a bridal salon lately) has prompted Larissa to do some browsing online as well as in the shops. She’s spotted some lovely used dresses for sale online (at a fraction of the original retail price) along with, of course, the explanation of WHY the selling bride is parting with The Dress.
For example, consider this online ad for a brand new, never-worn dress, offered for just $400:
“This gorgeous wedding gown was originally purchased at a Houston, Texas fou-fou boutique, and is definitely one of the most beautiful wedding gowns I’ve ever seen. It makes people cry, in a very sentimental way. Luckily, I never wore it, so there’s no bad ju-ju involved! The guy loved his video games more than me. Can you imagine?!”
Perhaps the reason I don’t look like a young and gorgeous size-2 supermodel is that I just do not use enough pro-pixel intensifying fauxtanical hydro-jargon microbead extract on my skin. You, too, can encourage your insecurities in a relentless search for entirely unrealistic beauty standards by learning about Fotoshop by Adobé – as described in this beauty product industry parody from filmmaker Jesse Rosten.
© 2012 Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
Megan Erickson’s recent Big Think piece called “How to Resist the Irresistible: A Buyers’ Guide to Shopping Tricks” includes a fascinating short (6:15) video interview with Lee Eisenberg, former editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine and author of the 2009 book, Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What.
Eisenberg observes that we consumers can resist the urge to buy something we don’t need by recognizing these four industry tricks to convince us to buy: Continue reading
