Regular readers of this blog [you what?: Ed] will know that I heartily dislike advertising in all forms. I had a lot of fun a while back when Tesco, wishing to apologise for a problem with petrol at some of their filling stations, ran an ad that began "We would like to promise...". Now Toyota, widely pilloried for a fault that makes some cars accelerate unexpectedly, has run full page ads in which they explain how they will put things right. Trouble is, the PR merchants have got in and as usual screwed the whole thing up. They cannot possibly let their company admit to a fault that needs fixing. The ads refer throughout to an "upgrade", and how Toyota have trained hundreds of technicians to perform the "upgrade" and how they are now "upgrading" 6000 cars a day.
Scene: A plumber calls at a house
Plumber: Morning madam, you phoned for help?
Lady of the house: "Oh, yes, I've got a leak in a pipe"
Plumber: "Ah well, I'm sure I can upgrade that for you. I'm specially trained to perform these upgrades you know. When I've finished you will be able to enjoy a whole upgraded non-leaking pipe situation which will take your domestic plumbing arrangements to a new level"
LOTH: "Yeah whatever"
And so on. This morning I once again had a bad journey on the Met due to signal failure near Finchley Road. No doubt the system will be upgraded for my return journey. Or maybe they will just fix the fault.
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