Redundancy

[Brunhidden]

*yawn* i just got back from a 12 hour shift at work, and something about what i had to do irritates me in a strange way.

the newspapers i sent out today needed to be put in advertisement bags, somewhere close to fifteen thousand i think...but thats kinda normal, its what the advertisement was that miffs me.

"*insert automobile dealer name* just opened a new branch in the Milwaukee area, check this paper for our ad"

its an ad for an ad? let me ponder the ways this is utter idiocy

1- this ad in no way gives any information other then the name of the auto dealer and the fact that theres a new one. no adress, not even a general area to look, in order to find the thing you must rife through a three pound sunday paper for a two inch ad. the only other way to know where it is would be if you saw it being built, but advertising to people who already know your there is kinda pointless.

2- the best they can give for a location is 'Milwaukee area'. the Milwaukee area is huge, and is tandemount to a German giving directions including "its somewhere near the Rhine river" or a Hawaiian telling you to look on that island, you know the one with the coffee place next to the fruit stand, take a left and go to a different island. The fact that most of Milwaukee can be anywhere from a half hour drive to an hour and a half drive from the destination of these papers makes me wonder why there even bothering with a geographical hint at all.

3- its for a car dealership. definitely NOT impulse purchase. if you were thinking about buying a car you would already have looked around every reputable car lot in the region, and anything farther is not of interest to you anyways. unless you have some insane sale going on where car shoppers may get a discount equal to their social security number or something, theres just no incentive to drive an extra half hour when theres seven car dealers within fifteen minutes.

4- the paper carriers are paid one and one fourth of a penny per paper they bag like this, and are not even allowed to leave the building until they've bagged them all. the average paper carrier has just been told they HAVE to do an extra hour and a half of work and are paid about two bucks for their effort.

5- lets say that all fifteen thousand papers were delivered, about two thirds of the people who get them will even notice the ad on the bag, about five people will call to complain that they got a paper and raise hell about how they do not want this paper so don't try and trick us into subscribing by giving us a free paper blah blah blah i have too much free time and enjoy complaining to people on the phone. of the people who even see the ad about one out of every five will even bother to read it, not mentally file it as junk mail, and absentmindedly wonder if its a worthwhile car lot. of those people maybe one in ten will decide to drive by. of the people who drive by maybe one in four decides to stop there. of the people who stop there one in three will stay longer then it takes to peek at the sticker price of four cars. of the curious people who looked around one in four may decide to talk to a sales representative without running away screaming. of anyone who talks to a car salesmen about one in twenty will actually consider buying a car. so out of fifteen thousand bags sent out the car dealership just might sell seven cars, and with all the costs of printing, the extra wages involved with sending them out and the managerial man hours spent just to decide to do it they may as well hand the newspaper a free car in exchange.

as stupid as all that sounds it still cant get past the fact that someone actually advertised the location of their advertisement. and its sad that i cannot say this is a new level of stupid, because this kind of stupid has been done before.

Maybe the 264th time is the charm?

[bill]

I assume that it's a detailed, "Check-our-ad-in-Golf-Magazine" type of ad, in which case it would make sense.

[Zedd]

OOOOWWWCCHHH Tell me your head isnt on fire cause of this

[Vidar]

* places ad *

For sale: tomato plants. In the region of earth, milky way. Get them while they're still alive!!!!!!!!

[GabrielsThoughts]

*placed ad*

Looking for something is round on one end, and sharp on the other, last seen in that place down by the bay. looks German, with gray and purple markings with black pips and feels sticky. reward offered if you find it call 555-6375   

Opject: pen with rubber grip.

[Gabi]

Ok, one from the supermarket.

Current US Dollar exchange: $3.10 (exclussively for sales of foods and non-foods).

[superluser]

Alright.  Since this thread has officially been jacked, here are two:

Our local paper had an ad for ``Anarchist group forming'' on successive weeks.

I saw a sign on the door for a grocery store:

``WE NOW SELL KOSHER AND GOY FOOD.''

Huh.  What sort of food were they selling before that was neither Kosher nor goy?  (On closer inspection, the term was Goya, though I'm told the joke still works)

[Gabi]

What's redundant about an anarchist group forming during several weeks? A group can keep forming as long as new members keep joining it.

[Brunhidden]

its like that sign for a psychics meeting. the sign just said "you know where, you know when." i guess it keeps the riff raff out

And that is why i shall never bathe again

[Ryudo Lee]

For sale: "Whatchamacallit" - It's one of those things... with the stuff.  Bundled with a slightly used "Thingamajig".

[superluser]

What's redundant about an anarchist group forming during several weeks? A group can keep forming as long as new members keep joining it.

But it's an ANARCHIST group (you know, the people who don't believe in authority).  When you think about it, it ceases to be funny, but it's still a good one-liner.

[Brunhidden]

thats not redundancy, it may be ironic or hypocritical, but those are entirely different vocabulary words.

Knowledge is power- FIGHT THE POWER!

[superluser]

thats not redundancy

Ah, I missed Gabi's mention of redundancy.  I did, however, note that the thread had been jacked, since other people seemed to be posting non-redundant ads.  I was following in that vein.  I do note that my goy/kosher ad *was* redundant.

[Gabi]

True. Anyway, anarchists have nothing against forming groups. It's leaders they don't like. Working together or just gathering is fine with them.

[Brunhidden]

maybe with a group of anarchists you have a rotating position of 'suggester' who has the job of voicing varrious ideas they can act on, everyone votes, and they decide what to do that way. of course your going to regularly have chunks of your group break off due to loosing a vote by 60 votes to 40 votes and get resentfull about it.

or you could just do everything by drawing from a hat. idea is that any form of organization is very difficult without someone in charge to take the blame

And that children is why guns are our friends

[superluser]

True. Anyway, anarchists have nothing against forming groups.

No, you're right.

It's actually not something that I personally found amusing, but everyone around me found it very funny.  I tried to explain that anarchists aren't against groups, and in fact most anarchists since Bakunin haven't really been anti-government, anyway.

It's still a humorous idea.

or you could just do everything by drawing from a hat. idea is that any form of organization is very difficult without someone in charge to take the blame

Wouldn't that be a chapeaucracy?

Woman: I thought we were an autonomous collective.
Dennis: You're fooling yourself.

[Brunhidden]

well it fits sinse the natural state of an anarchist is the unruly mob, which does classify as a group.

chapeaucracy actually sounds like a great form of government- nobody can abuse power cause they only have that power for about five minutes.

If you give me a man with a problem I merely take away the man. Without the man there is no problem.