Emotional blackmail as a marketing tool

nearlyrich

I hate all the ads that imply you have to spend a fortune to enjoy Christmas, the Argos ad is probably one of the worst, sorry take that back that beeping Iceland ad has just been on, if your table doesn't break under the strain you must be a bad Mum...grrr.

And charities, well I got 6 letters one day last week and 5 of them were begging letters from charities and the other was another letter from some dodgy loan company who want to lend me money to pay for Christmas!

Contains_Mild_Peril

Some of the NSPCC ads are laughable, but some of them give me the creeps: they seem to be implying that children need rescued from the normal ups and downs of family life, whether they want "rescued" or not.
I wouldn't sign up for one of these "only £2 a month" DD donation schemes, partly because I remember reading a thread a while ago about the charities pressurising donors into increasing the amount at a later date.
I hate those unsolicited charity Christmas cards. For me, there is no satisfactory way to deal with them. I won't buy them, but resent the fact that the alternatives are sending them back at my own expense or keeping/ disposing of something which has obviously cost a fair bit of money to produce. The price asked for is always sky-high, of course, to pay for all the ones that are neither bought not returned.
The one that really annoyed me was an ad for one of these schemes where you send someone a Chrismas card saying that you've made a charitable donation for them instead of a conventional Christmas present. I have no problem with that principle, but the ad went on about how we buy little token Christmas presents that get shoved away in a drawer and never used, and wouldn't it be so much better to help a worthy cause, yadda yadda yadda... and finally, at the end, mentioned that the minimum donation was £10. To me, a "token gesture" Christmas present is one costing about £1. When I spend £10 that's a really serious carefully chosen present for someone I care deeply about, and I was profoundly irritated by the implication that most of us habitually spend that sort of money on half-hearted throwaway gifts.

Sassers

Greypilgrim - I like your idea. My ex-boyfriend opened the door fully naked to two Jehovah's Witnesses after they'd knocked the door every night for a week. They sprinted away down the front path like a pair of greyhounds and he ran after them shouting `wait, wait, I want a copy of the Watchtower' .....I was in fits for months.
As for blackmail in adverts, I absolutely loathe it because to me it's so unsubtle, laying guilt trips on people. When I donate - to many and often -I do it because I want to not out of any sense of duty, guilt or TV coercion.
I got rid of my TV six months ago and I don't miss it in the slightest...
Catching a bit of telly round a frind's last night out of all the adverts I saw, the one that wound me up the most was the Iceland one with that Kerry woman in it. It's just something about it, that really grates on me.
As do the M&S `food !!!!!!' ones....... costly wanna-have food that I know I can cook better from scratch at a third of the price.

Sorry I've never ranted on here before !

nearlyrich

Sassers wrote:

Greypilgrim - I like your idea. My ex-boyfriend opened the door fully naked to two Jehovah's Witnesses after they'd knocked the door every night for a week. They sprinted away down the front path like a pair of greyhounds and he ran after them shouting `wait, wait, I want a copy of the Watchtower' .....I was in fits for months.

:rotfl: That's brilliant :rotfl:

pusscat

Love the idea of opening the door naked! Wish I had the guts to do it.....

Years ago I had a pet rat (a big black ugly looking one!) who had excema. The vet gave me some shampoo to help her skin. There I was in an apron and rubber gloves with a foaming, spitting, very angry rat under the kitchen tap when the doorbell rang. I didn't dare let go of the rat incase she ran for it, so I opened the door to several JW's, foaming, spitting, tail slashing, screaming rat still in hand - they almost shrieked "we see your busy, we'll call back some other time" and ran down the path - never got a call from them again

KittyKate

The cynical side of me always wonders how much the ads cost to make - actors, sets, camera/sound people, then all the airtime which costs hundreds of pounds a second during terrestrial primetime. How many people pay £2 a month to save 'little Timmy' and are just bankrolling this blackmail machine?

I hate ads which do that - even the Shreddies ad got on my nerves. 'Kids concentate more after breakfast, give them Shreddies and they will go to University!' - What's wrong with some toast and a banana in that case!?

Anyway, with charity, give as you can to where you feel needs it. For me it's the Salvation Army. They are very dignified.

If £2 a month saves kids from being abused, can't Tony Blair take a million from the war pot? No, thought not. The world is messed up.

JGWT8M

Sassers wrote:

Greypilgrim - I like your idea. My ex-boyfriend opened the door fully naked to two Jehovah's Witnesses after they'd knocked the door every night for a week. They sprinted away down the front path like a pair of greyhounds and he ran after them shouting `wait, wait, I want a copy of the Watchtower' .....I was in fits for months.

Stunning! :rotfl:

A friend of mine was being plagued by them as well, so after a week of them knocking on the door and him hiding behind the sofa, I went down to the paper shop and bought a load of adult mags, we popped them on the table and the next time they came he invited them in, I was sitting there reading one in that oh so naughty manner (you know, spinning the open magazine round one way and your head the other), they took about 2 steps into the lounge and backtracked out the door quicker than a scorched cat.

They've never been back into the street and it was the best £10 I've spent.

If we start getting hassled by charity workers again I know where I'll be going.

Once we had a a window salesman phone and after he'd ignored my pleas to go away I said to him my wife was naked on the sofa and I was going to put the phone down because she was much more interesting, he said he understood and didn't call back

JGWT8M

KittyKate wrote:

The cynical side of me always wonders how much the ads cost to make - actors, sets, camera/sound people, then all the airtime which costs hundreds of pounds a second during terrestrial primetime. How many people pay £2 a month to save 'little Timmy' and are just bankrolling this blackmail machine?

In the early 1990's it was £1000 a second for primetime on ITV.
Don't know what it is now though, probably less with more channels.
Our local radio is £340 an advert prime-time.

ftbworried

I used to get this at work (I worked for a drugs company). I already worked long hours 8.30- often staying till 9, so when they wheel out their promotional videos with "little johnny who's life is so much better now he has access to our xyz drug"- you just get a bit peeved that they think that they need to emotionally blackmail you to into working even harder....

Silverstar

Sassers wrote:

Greypilgrim - I like your idea. My ex-boyfriend opened the door fully naked to two Jehovah's Witnesses after they'd knocked the door every night for a week. They sprinted away down the front path like a pair of greyhounds and he ran after them shouting `wait, wait, I want a copy of the Watchtower' .....I was in fits for months.

I vaguely recall my sister, who was about fifteen, and heavily into paganism, at the time, doing her utmost to convert a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses who turned up on the doorstep one day. I don't think they stuck around very long, and they certainly didn't come back.