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Tag Archives: Bad ideas
I hope this is the most offensive ad you see today
Since running the ad the bar has been – justifiably – on the receiving end of a lot of anger. What gets me about the ad is that in addition to being offensive it makes no sense. What does “Party like a Pilgrim” mean? The Pilgrims as a group were ostentatiously severe when it came to celebrations. Their idea of a big party was extra church services followed by a discussion of religious tolerance – which they were against.
GM is so inept it can’t even sell a Hummer
It took some time but Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. finally realized what a bad idea buying Hummer would be. Yesterday the Chinese company announced it was pulling its offer to purchase the brand. From the start, the attempt to dump Hummer has been another testament to the company’s ineptitude. GM began trying to sucker someone into paying for the brand in June of 2008 – when gas was averaging $4.10 a gallon.
The Hummer’s greatest success may be as a metaphor for the past decade. It was a bloated, self-indulgent vehicle with no purpose other than to say, “Look how much debt I can take on just to show off how much debt I can take on.”* It proclaimed a belief that markets never go bad, in this case that gas will always be cheap. However it isn’t much of a stretch to say a similar belief permeated the minds who thought real estate could only gain in value.
The Atlantic is floating the scary idea that Hummer may not yet be dead and that someone may yet come along and revive the monster. Get the pitchforks and torches! Let us storm the castle and cut off the beast’s head and drive a stake through its transmission! For capitalism’s sake, follow me!
See also Hummer, slang meaning of.
*I know there are farmers and others who actually used the damn thing for work purposes, they are exempt from this metaphor.
GM merging with Chrysler: Dumb and dumberer
What part of two wrongs don’t make a right do these people not understand?
Isn’t the idea of a merger to combine strengths? What is it that these companies combined would be able to do that they can’t do by themselves? GM already has too many brands. So it wants to add more? The nice thing about having these two merge is that it will bring together a lot of bad management and keep it away from other companies.
Further proof that irrational exuberance walks among us: General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. shares were up more than 24% each on Monday. Ford’s stock is up apparently because it had previously held merger discussions with GM. The only reason this should be a boost for Ford is the realization that it was smart enough not to merge with GM. It is astounding to see what has happened to what was once the largest and best-run company in the world.
Further proof companies have no idea what a blog is
Found this ad by a company called QualityStocks (“Stock Newsletters For Smallcap Companies – Your FREE Investment Stock Newsletter Tracking Service”)
So putting aside the whole pay issue … what exactly is it that the reader is getting out of this that would make he or she want to read this thing? Come! Read our warmed over press releases!!! Don’t bother reading the actual releases!!!
Best line: “although creativity is also desired.”
Far too many corporate “blogs” are just this: A new place to put press releases for no one to read. A blog is a place where you try and have a conversation with a customer. It’s where you can prove you are on their side. Or its where you prove that you are definitely not on their side and actually don’t want to hear from them. As can be seen in the description above.
Collateral Damage 