Tuesday, June 01, 2004
02:47 by FoxTwo Did you manage to see this particular ad in the LIFE! section in Straits Times (31 May 2004)? For those who missed it, here it is below:
Notice the big heading - "Lost 1.1kg and 37cm in just 1 treatment".
I mean, come on, 1.1 kilos and THIRTY-SEVEN CENTIMETRES? If 1.1 kilos mean 37 cm then before this person lost that weight, she'd have about 30 METRES of fats! (85kg x 37cm gives you about 3000cm, about 30 metres). Now, if you don't know what 30 metres look like, go to the Jurong Bird Park and look for that man-made waterfall. THAT is 30 metres tall. Have you ever seen anybody walking around that fat?
Anyway I showed this to a few people at the office and one commented that they probably took measurements from 30 odd places over the whole body and each place may have lost 1cm, hence, in total she lost 37 cm.
Yeah right. So if I measured 50 places on my body and I lose 1 cm everywhere I measured, I lost 50 cm and only 1kg!
This kind of reminds me of insurance agents who tried to use the "Come on, it's only $1 a day!" thing on me to persuade me to buy a policy. Yeah. $1 a day, for 30 days that's $30. It's the same as your credit card bill - $20 here, $30 there, another $10 here.. it all adds up. Many times have I looked at my credit card bill at the end of the month and wondered how the heck I managed to spend $1000 that month, because all I remember are payments that are small.
Speaking of sales gimmicks, ever received those phone calls that start out with "Congratulations! You have won a prize in our <name of event> and we need you to come down to our office to collect the prize. However, before you let you have it, you need to sit through a 15 minute talk."
Yeah I have, and I tell you, the 15 min talk is more sales talk. They will ask you stuff like "So... IF I MAKE IT AFFORDABLE FOR YOU, you will sign up/buy the product right?". The thing is, they want you to keep your pride and say "YEAH". That is how they corner you and close the sale of whatever they are selling. Tour packages and "foreign resort memberships" are the biggest culprits of these kinda "marketing" tactics. Don't be fooled and don't EVER go for any of these "15 minute talks".
How did I handle those? I put on my thick-skinned facade and told them that I totally wasn't interested even if they gave the product/membership to me free, and walked outta there. I told them precisely where they could take my "prize" and stick it.
Oh yeah one final rambling - I believe many of you must have received those "pre-approved" credit card things. Yes, they tell you "Congratulations! You have been specially selected and pre-approved for a <name of credit card>! Please fill in the form and send it back to us so we may process it."
Now, take a good look at the form. Doesn't it look familiar? HEY YEAH!! It looks exactly like an APPLICATION FORM!. It even sports the "you need to send in your CPF statement for the past 6 months and your latest salary slip" bit.
Now, I know Singaporeans aren't very good in English, but doesn't ANYBODY that works in a big company like a BANK would know what "pre-approved" means? It means, simply, that I can walk into the bank, present this letter and get the card, no questions asked. It's PRE-APPROVED remember? I don't even need to apply for it. It's ALREADY APPROVED. Yeah, that's what PRE-APPROVED means!
So, the next time you get one of these "pre-approved" letters, call the bank and ask them "When can I come and collect the card?" :) When they say you can't do that, explain to them what the meaning of "pre-approved" is, and if enough people do that they will stop harassing us with gimmicks like these.
More next time...
02:47 by FoxTwo Did you manage to see this particular ad in the LIFE! section in Straits Times (31 May 2004)? For those who missed it, here it is below:
Notice the big heading - "Lost 1.1kg and 37cm in just 1 treatment".
I mean, come on, 1.1 kilos and THIRTY-SEVEN CENTIMETRES? If 1.1 kilos mean 37 cm then before this person lost that weight, she'd have about 30 METRES of fats! (85kg x 37cm gives you about 3000cm, about 30 metres). Now, if you don't know what 30 metres look like, go to the Jurong Bird Park and look for that man-made waterfall. THAT is 30 metres tall. Have you ever seen anybody walking around that fat?
Anyway I showed this to a few people at the office and one commented that they probably took measurements from 30 odd places over the whole body and each place may have lost 1cm, hence, in total she lost 37 cm.
Yeah right. So if I measured 50 places on my body and I lose 1 cm everywhere I measured, I lost 50 cm and only 1kg!
This kind of reminds me of insurance agents who tried to use the "Come on, it's only $1 a day!" thing on me to persuade me to buy a policy. Yeah. $1 a day, for 30 days that's $30. It's the same as your credit card bill - $20 here, $30 there, another $10 here.. it all adds up. Many times have I looked at my credit card bill at the end of the month and wondered how the heck I managed to spend $1000 that month, because all I remember are payments that are small.
Speaking of sales gimmicks, ever received those phone calls that start out with "Congratulations! You have won a prize in our <name of event> and we need you to come down to our office to collect the prize. However, before you let you have it, you need to sit through a 15 minute talk."
Yeah I have, and I tell you, the 15 min talk is more sales talk. They will ask you stuff like "So... IF I MAKE IT AFFORDABLE FOR YOU, you will sign up/buy the product right?". The thing is, they want you to keep your pride and say "YEAH". That is how they corner you and close the sale of whatever they are selling. Tour packages and "foreign resort memberships" are the biggest culprits of these kinda "marketing" tactics. Don't be fooled and don't EVER go for any of these "15 minute talks".
How did I handle those? I put on my thick-skinned facade and told them that I totally wasn't interested even if they gave the product/membership to me free, and walked outta there. I told them precisely where they could take my "prize" and stick it.
Oh yeah one final rambling - I believe many of you must have received those "pre-approved" credit card things. Yes, they tell you "Congratulations! You have been specially selected and pre-approved for a <name of credit card>! Please fill in the form and send it back to us so we may process it."
Now, take a good look at the form. Doesn't it look familiar? HEY YEAH!! It looks exactly like an APPLICATION FORM!. It even sports the "you need to send in your CPF statement for the past 6 months and your latest salary slip" bit.
Now, I know Singaporeans aren't very good in English, but doesn't ANYBODY that works in a big company like a BANK would know what "pre-approved" means? It means, simply, that I can walk into the bank, present this letter and get the card, no questions asked. It's PRE-APPROVED remember? I don't even need to apply for it. It's ALREADY APPROVED. Yeah, that's what PRE-APPROVED means!
So, the next time you get one of these "pre-approved" letters, call the bank and ask them "When can I come and collect the card?" :) When they say you can't do that, explain to them what the meaning of "pre-approved" is, and if enough people do that they will stop harassing us with gimmicks like these.
More next time...
