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Is the “Runaway Prius” the greatest marketing hoax ever?

Mar 10th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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Prius

It doesn't look so safe and reliable now...

As someone who grew up in the Detroit area, I’ll be the first to admit that I have been taking tremendous pleasure in the woes of Toyota recently. It is nice to see the idolized Toyota on the ropes for a change. And when I read about the Runaway Prius the other day, I simply thought “More good news for Ford!”

But my friend Kevin over at the blog America, Love It or Not makes the rather persuasive case that the runaway Prius incident in California could be an elaborate hoax.

Here are some of the facts he found that don’t seem to make sense:

  • He pressed the brake to the floor, but it didn’t slow down the car. Most cars with good brakes can lock up all four wheels at any speed. A Prius isn’t exactly a torque-machine. Its acceleration is pretty weak and should be easily overpowered by the brakes.
  • The car was accelerating for 20 minutes before it could be stopped. I don’t know if any of you have ever driven on a freeway with other cars before, but it is nearly impossible to go 90 MPH for 5 minutes – let alone 20 – without hitting traffic. Unless he was passing cars on the shoulder (unlikely), he would have definitely hit another vehicle in 20 minutes.
  • He called 911. If you were speeding along at 90 MPH and unable to stop, would you call 911 (if it wasn’t a hoax)? What is 911 going to tell you that you don’t already know? Wouldn’t you be scared to take a hand off the wheel when weaving in and out of traffic and passing on the shoulder?

You can read the rest of the post here.

If this is a hoax, it might be the finest corporate negative campaigning in American history. In the last 24-hours alone, there have been over 1,990 stories published about the incident according to Google News. This is the kind of negative publicity that money cannot buy. And it would suggest that the American business world (or some lone gunman) is finally embracing the rough and tumble tactics that are a hallmark of our elections.

Of course, being a native Michigander, I can’t help but think that a campaign this devious would be beyond the reach of Detroit’s marketers. It is quite frankly just too effective to have been the brainchild of an industry whose ads and messaging strategies have been almost universally horrible for decades. Which is why I’d bet that if it turns out to be a hoax–which I suspect it was–we’ll find out that it was the work of one or two enterprising fellows.

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Life, Liberty and Highway Rest Stops

Mar 9th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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DrivingThere is a reason that James Madison did not guarantee access to a free toilet in the Bill of Rights. It is because in 1789, despite recently winning independence from a brutal colonial Empire, no one could imagine a regime so oppressive that it would charge people to use the bathroom.

But of course it was not long before some enterprising huckster came up with the idea of exploiting people in their time of need by charging them to use the restroom. This idea spread like wildfire, particularly in Europe, where nickel-and-diming Americans and tourists is an obsession.

But pay toilets caught on here too. Fortunately, the efforts of the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America managed to successfully ban pay toilets from most of America.

But today we face a new threat to our inalienable right to pee for free: budget cuts.

As states across the nation struggle to balance their books, they are looking for any possible way to cut expenses. They are shuttering schools, slashing public safety spending and putting off routine road repairs. But in Arizona, a state that has seen more than its share of budget cuts, residents have finally stood up and said some things are too scared to sacrifice. Those things are Highway Rest Stops.

The New York Times has the story:

PHOENIX — The people of Arizona kept their upper lips stiff when officials mortgaged off the state’s executive office tower and a “Daily Show” crew rolled into town to chronicle the transaction in mocking tones. They remained calm as lawmakers pondered privatizing death row.

But then the state took away their toilets, and residents began to revolt.

…

Arizona has the largest budget gap in the country when measured as a percentage of its overall budget, and the state Department of Transportation was $100 million in the red last fall when it decided to close 13 of the state’s 18 highway rest stops.

But the move has unleashed a torrent of telephone calls and e-mail messages to state lawmakers, newspapers and the Department of Transportation deploring the lost toilets — one of the scores of small indignities among larger hardships that residents of embattled states face as governments scramble to shore up their finances.

“People in this state are mad about this,” said State Representative Daniel Patterson, a Democrat from Tucson who has sponsored a bill that would allow other entities to reopen and maintain the rest stops. “This bill may have the broadest support among members of any bill this year.”

Some residents see something sinister in the closings. Betty L. Roberts, who lives in Sun City, west of Phoenix, said the topic was a hot one among her friends.

You can read the rest of the story here.

[Hat tip: Erin]

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You can ban cell phones but you can’t ban stupid [distracted driving]

Mar 8th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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Coffee & RazorOne of the reasons that cell phone bans don’t seem to reduce traffic accidents is that in the scheme of things, talking on the cell phone is not one of the more dangerous activities that drivers regularly engage in.

And even if you do managed to stop people from yakking on the phone, they’ll just come up with some other, more dangerous, activity to distract them from driving.

The 37 year old Florida woman who caused an accident while shaving her bikini line while driving is an excellent example.

From Florida Keys News:

As authorities nationwide warn motorists of the dangers of driving while texting, Florida Keys law enforcement officers add a new caution: Don’t try to shave your privates, either.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers say a two-vehicle crash Tuesday at Mile Marker 21 on Cudjoe Key was caused by a 37-year-old woman driver who was shaving her bikini area while her ex-husband took the wheel from the passenger seat.

“She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit,” Trooper Gary Dunick said. “If I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have believed it. About 10 years ago I stopped a guy in the exact same spot … who had three or four syringes sticking out of his arm. It was just surreal and I thought, ‘Nothing will ever beat this.’ Well, this takes it.”

[via Consumerist]

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Late night document shredding at the Fed

Mar 8th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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IMG_0233

It’s unclear exactly why, but the Federal Reserve Bank of New York seems to have rented some paper shredders – really, really big paper shredders.

Last Thursday night around 7 PM I was in the Financial District walking down Maiden Lane when I heard a loud engine noise. As I crossed William Street and approached the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, I saw that the noise was coming from one of those giant document shredding trucks that was parked outside the Fed’s main delivery doors.

People are pretty suspicious of the Fed these days. Maybe next time they have a late-night document shredding session, they should consider hiring a document destruction company with a more discrete truck. You know, so it doesn’t look like they’re destroying evidence and all.

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A soda tax will hit your frappuccino too [soda tax]

Mar 8th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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New York isn’t the only place where politicians are pushing for a soda tax. Cash-strapped legislatures around the country are increasingly looking to soda taxes as a politically palatable way to raise funds under the guise of public health initiative.

Of course such a tax would hurt the poor most of all. But just because you tend to favor sophisticated coffee drinks over Big Gulps of Coke, doesn’t mean that a soda tax won’t impact you.

A recent story in the Philadelphia Inquirer had a great illustration of what exactly Philadelphia Mayor Nutter’s 2-cent per ounce soda tax would mean for your beverage of choice. Chocolate milk, fountain drinks, iced tea, even sweetened coffee drinks would be subject to the tax.

Like to drink a frappuccino in the morning? Better get ready to fork over an additional 20 cents for it. Soda taxes, it seems, will apply to Starbucks too.

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Stock up on Coke, the soda tax is coming

Mar 8th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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Side of LifeThe New York Health Department is apparently ready to move forward with plans for a soda tax, according to a report in the New York Post.

“It’s time to get it done,” State Health Commissioner Richard Daines told the Daily News. “We’ve talked about it, the evidence for health benefits is getting a lot stronger, and the need for the revenue this year is definitely there.”

Daines is confidant the Legislature will pass the tax this year, setting an example for the rest of the country to follow.

A regressive tax that would threaten the very institution of free refills does not sound like a good example for the rest of the county to follow to me.

I still doubt this tax will come to pass, it is, after all, wildly unpopular. But it still might be a good idea to start stacking up on your favorite soda just in case it does in order to delay its impact on you.

Regular cans usually have around a 39 week shelf-life and probably taste good enough to drink for up to a year. A word of advice though, artificial sweeteners in diet drinks greatly reduce their shelf life and are sensitive to heat. So it’s probably a good idea to keep a good idea to keep your hoard limited to regular sodas.

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Why our meat is so cheap [chart]

Mar 7th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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If there is one thing that McDonald’s taught us, it is that Prosperity doesn’t taste like Tofu—it tastes like meat.

Perhaps this is why the most prosperous nation in the world spends so much money subsidizing the cost of meat. What, after all, is the good of all our riches if every man, woman and child in American can’t afford to eat meat on a daily basis?

As the chart below from Good Medicine illustrates, the government directs the vast majority of our food subsidies towards meat, a bit less go towards grains (we need to keep high fructose corn syrup cheap, after all) and the remainder is aimed at side dishes, like vegetables.

Looks about right to me.*

After all, without all those massive meat subsidies, McDonald’s burgers wouldn’t cost less than $1 and all-you-can-eat steakhouses like Fugo-de-Chao probably wouldn’t exist. And that would be a tragedy.

*Truth be told, I tend to think we should eliminate all agricultural subsidies. But absent that, I’ take a little comfort  from the fact that they are making my steak dinner more affordable in the short term.

[Good Health via Consumerist]

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ABC wants your money to prop up Disney Land (or so says Cablevision)

Mar 5th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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In the world of corporate negative advertising,  it is usually cable and satellite companies that are the most hard-hitting. Comcast’s “Satellite TV is not all its dished up to be” ads were some of my personal favorites.

But a new ad out from Cablevision viciously attacking ABC might just set a new standard for corporate attack ads. Cablevision is in the midst of renegotiating a contract with ABC. But those talks don’t seem to be going well and are likely to get a bit harder since Cablevision is accusing ABC of extorting money from poor cable subscribers in order to:

  • line the pockets of fat cats
  • prop up failing theme parks
  • compensate for a failed business model

Ouch.

Here is the video.

Corporate attack ads: always entertaining.

[Via Consumerist]

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The spread of McDonald’s across the globe [map]

Mar 5th, 2010
by Free Refills.
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Running water, literacy, life expectancy, GDP per-capita. All of these are nifty measures for comparing the relative development of different countries. But for me, it all boils down to a much simpler question: Is there a McDonald’s there?

If a nation has a McDonald’s then it is civilized. If it does not, well, keep trying guys.

Previously I posted a map of worldwide McDonald’s locations. But I was poking around last night and found something better: a map that shows when the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in every country. Now we can easily track the nearly irreversible spread of civilization and Big Mac’s across the globe.

As you can see, the USA and Canada have been civilized the longest, followed by Western Europe and Australia. Brazil, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria came next, followed a few decades later by Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. The Indian Sub-Continent, most of South America and South Africa are the most recent members of the civilized world.

As for Iceland, well they got kicked out of the civilized world last year. Now they have joined the small club of nations (Iran, Bolivia and a few islands) who, by losing their last McDonald’s, have taken a giant step backwards in the march of human progress. Sorry guys!

[Map credit: Wikipedia]


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Now the NYT wants to ban billboards too [distracted driving]

Mar 3rd, 2010
by Free Refills.
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2008-11-16 Electronic billboard at Rome-Hilliard Rd. & I-70 on the far west side of Columbus, OhioNot content merely to fear monger about the immanent national threat posed by motorists who chat on their cell phone, the New York Times has decided to take on a new bogyman: electronic billboards.

From the New York Times:

Safety advocates who worry about the dangers of distracted driving have a new concern beyond cellphones and gadget-laden dashboards: digital roadside billboards.

These high-tech billboards marry the glow of Times Square with the immediacy of the Internet. Images change every six to eight seconds, so advertisers can flash timely messages — like the latest headlines, coffee deals at dawn, a cheeseburger at lunchtime or even the song playing on a radio station at that moment.

The billboard industry asserts there is no research indicating they cause crashes, and notes that the signs do not use video or animation.

But to critics, these ever-changing, bright billboards are “television on a stick” and give drivers, many of them already calling and texting, yet another reason to take their eyes off the road.

Abby Dart, executive director of Scenic Michigan, a nonprofit group trying to block construction of new digital billboards in the state, calls the signs “weapons of mass distraction” and says they can be more dangerous than phones.

As someone who has spent entirely too much time driving across Ohio, I can tell you that at least in the nations farm belt, large, electronic billboards are not so much as a distraction as a safety feature. After all, what else is there to keep you from falling asleep after 100 miles of cornfields?

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