Can It Be Done?

[jegs2]

The Earth has a diameter of roughly 12750km, and it rotates once every 24 hours. This is all the information we need.

The circumference of the Earth would be 12750km times PI, or roughly 40,000km. Therefore, the tangential velocity at the equator is more than 1600 km/h (1000 mph, for you Yanks). This is obviously not possible for anything short of a supersonic aircraft.

Even if we take a latitude 70% of the way up to the North Pole, the circumference would still be greater than 28000 km (EDIT: in case you're curious, that's the 45-degree line, where the latitude and radius are both 70.7% of maximum), so the tangential velocity would be around 1200 km/h, or 700 mph. Not too damned likely for the car they showed in the commercial.

In other words, it's false advertising.

Somebody call Cohen and Cohen! Lawsuit's on, and we'll soon be dancing on mounds of money!

[CmdrWilkens]

Like the Ford ad where a pickup 'tows' a 20,000 tonne icebreaker, this fleeing sunset ad is just so blatantly stupid that I really wonder what the MBA morons are trying to say. This kind of overstatement advertising is more of a joke than even a half-assed attempt to portray the real and useful capabilities of a product. It's just nuts.

It's 21st century advertising. There was once a time that people would get up onscreen and extoll the virtues of their product. Now, advertising is Pavlovian. They try to associate positive reinforcement with their product and then drill the mindless association into your head with exaggeration and repetition. They literally treat us like animals instead of rational human beings. Sadly, this is highly effective, since (as I have noted many times before) most people are idiots.

Which leads to suh fun ads as the Mazda ad, I believe, where the car drives off a stage onto a CROWD OF PEOPLE and proceeds to crowd surf...and they actually had to put a disclaimer on the ad telling poeple not to do this.

[The Yosemite Bear]

The ICE RINK one I my self find scary, I live up here were we have really bad parking lots, which get's over run with melt, and then it friezes overnight, I carry bags of sand, and cat litter in my car, I own chains, and I drive slow. I still see the inevatable results of tourists who DON"T, meeting other vehicles. (Which reminds me, whoever it was whose trailer hitch caved in my fender last winter in the parking lot, please leave insurance info on my window next time.)

[Sea Skimmer]

Like the Ford ad where a pickup 'tows' a 20,000 tonne icebreaker, this fleeing sunset ad is just so blatantly stupid that I really wonder what the MBA morons are trying to say. This kind of overstatement advertising is more of a joke than even a half-assed attempt to portray the real and useful capabilities of a product. It's just nuts.

It's 21st century advertising. There was once a time that people would get up onscreen and extoll the virtues of their product. Now, advertising is Pavlovian. They try to associate positive reinforcement with their product and then drill the mindless association into your head with exaggeration and repetition. They literally treat us like animals instead of rational human beings. Sadly, this is highly effective, since (as I have noted many times before) most people are idiots.

Which leads to suh fun ads as the Mazda ad, I believe, where the car drives off a stage onto a CROWD OF PEOPLE and proceeds to crowd surf...and they actually had to put a disclaimer on the ad telling poeple not to do this.

You know, in many cases they only add disclaimers after somebody tried it. I really hope this was not a case of that.

[Master of Ossus]

It's 21st century advertising. There was once a time that people would get up onscreen and extoll the virtues of their product. Now, advertising is Pavlovian. They try to associate positive reinforcement with their product and then drill the mindless association into your head with exaggeration and repetition. They literally treat us like animals instead of rational human beings. Sadly, this is highly effective, since (as I have noted many times before) most people are idiots.

I think the commercials are perfectly fine (Swedish bikini team, the Twins etc...) that way as long as you are aware of them so you hopefully won't fall for it.

The Simpsons had a good parody of Beer ads where these two losers sprayed Duff beer all over a bunch of militant protesting feminists and then they turned into a bunch of bikin wearing party girls (who like hanging out with those two guys).

Kate and I were watching a football game and that add came on for beer with everyone partying and getting drunk and screaming, etc. at the end of the ad, I looked over at her and said "Drink responsibly." We both laughed until the next play. The next day in the office, everyone was pulling a late-nighter because of some breaking news we wanted to get in for the morning addition, and the Monday Night game had a similar ad. One of my best staff writers looked over at me, pointed at the television, and said "That is a socially irresponsible advertisement." Beer commercials are perfect for mocking.