Put it on your list

For a long time Mary and I have laughed at the Mercury commercials where the tagline is, "You gotta put Mercury on your list!" They might as well say, "We know you are going to buy another car, but at least come by and pester our salesguy on the way to the Honda dealership." It's completely lame. That slogan in NO WAY inspires me to buy a Mercury.

"Mercury! Almost good enough to purchase!"

"Mercury! You are probably overestimating the number of people that will laugh at you!"


"Buy a Merc ... well, ... Come shop for a Mercury!"

I just saw this thing that has Microsoft branding all over it. I guess it is a Microsoft sponsored thing. Basically the message is:

"Windows Vista! Not as crappy as you thought!"

Before I go any further, know that I unabashadly like Vista. I think it looks cool, it is secure, I have had few problems with it. But come on, guys! What a horrible ad campaign! Maybe there is a permutation of the grandmotherly advice of, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." to become, "If you don't have something really compelling that will get me up off my butt to go buy your product, then either you don't have a good product or you have a really lousy salesman." What were the ideas that this ad company rejected? Insulting people who will not buy their product?

"Windows Vista! Ha Ha! You suck for not buying it."

Maybe it is time to concede that people have been convinced that Vista is not a desirable product. Maybe it is time to rush out Windows 7. But, man, if Windows 7 gets the same bad publicity and incompetent advertising ...