Wednesday, May 7, 2014

You can't fix stupid

Yes, it is true: you can't fix stupid. No matter what the clerks' union comes up with, it will never get away from the image of what was quite possibly the most inane advertisement ever to be put on Pennsylvania's airwaves. It is so bad in so many ways that the entire nation is laughing at the state, and the idiots who put this together for broadcast.



That bunch of idiots would be the UFCW Local 1776 media office and an outfit called Strategic Communications (the link is provided in case you want to put this gang of ham-handed 'communicators' on your company's Do Not Call list). It is so bad that one of the union's own members said on Facebook, "I work for this system and I personally find this ad embarrassing. Their true intentions are to keep our jobs (which I do not mind), but Ads like these are utterly ridiculous." Obviously he wishes to remain anonymous.

I have not seen one positive response anywhere. I would like to read one just to get an idea of what kind of person thinks this was a good idea.  Those that don't are legion,  If you haven't seen the stories, here are a baker's dozen of them. Be sure to read the comments: they just don't get any better.

1.) http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/05/04/union-privatizing-the-sale-of-alcohol-will-kill-children-lower-tax-revenue/

2.) http://fermentationwineblog.com/2014/05/worst-alcohol-related-ad-history-world/

3.) http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/unions-panicking-possible-liquor-privatization-pennsylvania-video/#axzz30tTcJtUY

4.) https://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2014/05/state-liquor-store-union-pulls-out-the-stops-new-ad-explains-that-selling-beer-in-grocery-stores-kills-children/

5.) http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/377162/union-monopoly-protects-pennsylvania-children-drunken-slaughter-tim-cavanaugh

6.) http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/audio/1562-chris-stigall-show/the-chris-stigall-show-wendell-young/

7.) http://tinyurl.com/njtuhwc (About 7 minutes in)

8.) http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/entertainment/television/WATCH-UFCWs-hilariously-bad-anti-liquor-privatization-ad-.html

9.) http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/02/pennsylvanians-cant-buy-beer-and-wine-at

10.) http://www.commonwealthfoundation.org/policyblog/detail/will-more-choice-and-convenience-really-kill-your-kids

11.) http://www.nationalmemo.com/watch-the-craziest-political-ad-of-2014/

12.) http://philly.barstoolsports.com/around-barstool/video-anti-liquor-privatization-ad-says-pa-selling-beer-at-convenience-stores-will-kill-one-child-every-week/

13,) And my own lambasting published here last week.

Enjoy, have fun and don't laugh too hard. Remember: this year privatization killed the little girl; last year, they killed her father. If this drags on one more year...that's going to be a pretty lonely ad campaign. But it's still going to be stupid, because there's just no way this line of reasoning is ever going to make sense.

6 comments:

Albert Brooks said...

I'll toss in another for free:

http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/pennsylvania-privatization-propaganda/

Geno Washington said...

The existence of this commercial in a nice state such as California or Illinois would be shocking. But Pennsylvania is one of the poorer and least-educated US states so I am not surprised at all.

Also, wouldn't it be great if the Philadelphia area could break free from the PLCB, while the rest of the state can keep the current system, which makes sense in Harrisburg but not Philadelphia?

Lew Bryson said...

Given the massive amount of border bleed in the southeast corner, I think Philly is already free of the PLCB. .

Anonymous said...

Hey, the cover of this bloggers book looks just like the cover of Lew's book! Who is the original? These aren't just formula books or something?

Lew Bryson said...

It's a series of brewery guidebooks done by Stackpole Books, a Pennsylvania company in Mechanicsburg. My Pennsylvania Breweries was the first in the series, and I created the format together with my editor, Kyle Weaver. I've approved the writers for the other books, and they've turned out very well, I think. The covers look similar, the format is similar, but given the narrative content of the books, they're far from being "formula" books.
If you care, that is.

Albert Brooks said...

It is Lew's book and Lew's blog. I'm just filling in on the blog for awhile.