Smoke is in the air as Los Angeles streets offer up video that could be a Rorschach test for the different ways the same footage can be understood–Riots? Peaceful protests? Opportunistic looting? All of the above?
Smoke is in the air as Air India drops a Boeing 787 into a crowded residential neighbourhood and even before the horror can be fully described, much less grasped, the informed and uninformed speculation begins–Pilot error? Mechanical failure? Bird strike?
Smoke is in the air as the Middle East teeters on the edge of something–Peace for a generation? Regional war that draws in Russia, China, and the USA? Regime change in Iran?
Smoke in the air obscures many of the news stories we hear every day. Their meaning? Different folks tell us different things. Their cause? It’s hard to tell. Their outcome? It’s too soon to tell. And yet in this increasingly complex and confusing world, some things are still clear-cut.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present Exhibits A and B. Exhibit A shows that the marketers had six and five-eighths inches of real estate to communicate information to prospective buyers in each Official Language. Herewith, the English side.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B shows that they assigned just one-eighth of one inch to the one piece of information I was trying to discern: gel or paste?
Exhibit B
Even better, they used a low-contrast font. After all, the only thing that communicates better and faster than tiny print . . . is tiny print in a low-contrast font.
So there you have it. I can’t render a verdict on the major issues of the day. I can’t even offer certainty on all points with respect to toothpaste marketers, but the main verdict is clear: They’ve gone nuts. There are no other possible options or interpretations. In a way, it’s sort of comforting not to have to deal with any uncertainty.
I definitely agree! And there are a zillion versions! I now look at the bottom shelf where most of the time “plain old” is sold at half the price and mostof the effectiveness of the highly engineered versions.
Judith – 🙂 A good tip. And yes, too many versions altogether. The local Shopper’s recently reorganized their shelves and moved my expensive high-fluoride toothpaste to the bottom shelf from the top. I preferred the first placement, where I didn’t need to crouch to retrieve it and then rise, gracefully of course.
“They’ve gone nuts” is right. Powder kegs abound!
Tom
Tom – 🙂 I know that this is a common refrain among the old–that everything is going to hell in a handbasket–but I mean, really. Come on!
Good post. I always enjoys a good peeve.
Bottom shelf items peeve me, too. I usually knock over several slippery “upside-down” (on-their-lids) tubes trying to find the tube I want.
Years ago, John and I were in a Sears and, overwhelmed with products seemingly in no particular order, he said “So much crap, but I still can’t find the crap I want.” (emphasis on the “I” not possible to show in text format here.)
Barbara – 🙂 Yes, the stand-on-their-heads packages can be a problem, for sure. I guess they reduce packaging (no boxes) but for sure they’re not stable. As for the multiplicity of choices, I feel John’s pain.
Isabel – and now I have added a new acronym to my collection. IYKYK.
Obviously, I didn’t ‘know’ until very recently.
John – 🙂 We can’t hope to keep up but we can have some fun.