sadly, the games of the xxix olympiad, which for the last two weeks had become my fascination - and excuse for doing absolutely nothing on the weekends but watch tv - have come to an end. although i will miss the nightly excitement of coming home to hours of uninterrupted sports coverage, two things that i will definitely not miss are the superfluous commentary and selective coverage of the "nbc family of networks", and the commercials.
one particularly lousy series of adverts, by exxon-mobil, in which highly coiffed executives (or actors?) claim to be helping to fight malaria by donating bed nets (really!!) will go down in the history of high-dollar advertising as the sorriest excuse for tooting your own horn by an already unpopular corporation.
what bothers me most is the cheekiness of this company, whose quarterly profits greatly exceed the annual gross domestic product of the developing nations they claim to be helping, to spend what must be chump change for them on this publicity campaign to pitch their so-called human capital initiatives, rather than donating said sums to humanitarian and environmental causes in the countries in which they operate.
word of advice for exxon-mobil leadership: i think you need a new marketing strategy; we’re not buying this gigantic crock of bs.
Aug 25, 2008
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