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Thread: Emotional blackmail by EVIL corporations!

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    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Default Emotional blackmail by EVIL corporations!

    Pampers (in some sort of association with UNICEF) is running an ad campaign here where they say they'll give a Tetanus vaccine to a child in the developing world for every packet of Pampers sold in the next few months or so. I hate this type of ad campaigns the subtext being should you choose another brand children will needlessly die. Fuck you Pampers and fuck your "compassionwash".

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    Yeah, that kind of thing rubs me the wrong way too. Yoplait (I think, if not, it was some other brand of yogurt) periodically runs a campaign where they'll donate a nickel to breast cancer research for every yogurt lid you send it. I don't like that either.

    If a company wants to run commercials bragging about how they donate to breast cancer research or tetanus shots or saving puppies or whatever, that's fine with me. It's a reasonable selling point. I don't like the ridiculous idea of trying to pretend that a company and its consumers are somehow partners in some campaign, though, where you have to buy their product or else orphans will starve.

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    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Exy View post
    Yeah, that kind of thing rubs me the wrong way too. Yoplait (I think, if not, it was some other brand of yogurt) periodically runs a campaign where they'll donate a nickel to breast cancer research for every yogurt lid you send it. I don't like that either.

    If a company wants to run commercials bragging about how they donate to breast cancer research or tetanus shots or saving puppies or whatever, that's fine with me. It's a reasonable selling point. I don't like the ridiculous idea of trying to pretend that a company and its consumers are somehow partners in some campaign, though, where you have to buy their product or else orphans will starve.
    I'd hate to have the job of unloading all the nasty licked tops from the Yoplait packages. I avoid their brand because of the "yuckky" factor.
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
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    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Let's not forget that it's also an inherently dishonest blackmail - the way those deals work out is that the company has agreed to donate a maximum of X funds to the charity, and then there's a link to a time frame, or expected sales rates. What I believe happens is that they choose the rate so that they're simply dividing their donation by the normal sales rate, to find the portion per unit that's being donated, based on their estimates.

    IOW, even if everyone runs out to buy Pampers not one extra dose of medicine will be purchased.

    It's still less annoying to me than having the cashier asking me to donate to the food bank every time I buy groceries.

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    Clueless but well-meaning Hatshepsut's avatar
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    I'd never given this much thought before, but you've all convinced me it's a rather dishonest sales technique.

    In New Hampshire when I was a kid, the cashiers used to ask you to buy a lottery ticket to fund the state education budget. My parents used to go ballistic over that one, and I can't say I blame them. I have no idea if it is still that way or not.

    Now, since no one in my family wears diapers, I'll get back to my regularly scheduled program of depriving third-world children of needed vaccinations.

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    Quote Originally posted by jali View post
    I'd hate to have the job of unloading all the nasty licked tops from the Yoplait packages. I avoid their brand because of the "yuckky" factor.
    Heh, yeah, that thought lurks in the back of my mind too.

    :: shudder ::


    Quote Originally posted by Hatshepsut
    I'll get back to my regularly scheduled program of depriving third-world children of needed vaccinations.
    That's our Hattie, eternally indifferent to the plight of the third world. ;_;
    Last edited by Exy; 01 Nov 2009 at 09:01 PM.

  7. #7
    Oliphaunt Taumpy's avatar
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    I understand why you guys feel like that, and I agree, but I've been in retail too long for it to bother me. Everything is a shameless ploy for more sales.

    Really, the most important point made to this thread is that Yoplait is fucking disgusting (I blame it on the fact that they are I believe the last major yogurt brand in the US to stop using HFCS instead of sugar or aspartame). But it's quite popular for some reason.

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    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Hatshepsut View post
    In New Hampshire when I was a kid, the cashiers used to ask you to buy a lottery ticket to fund the state education budget. My parents used to go ballistic over that one, and I can't say I blame them. I have no idea if it is still that way or not.
    Don't get me started on that whole lie about Lottery monies and eduction funding. :Shake:


    It's fucking proof that no matter how vile, misleading or disgusting a company can be, governments can be worse.

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