Letters To An
Overseas Friend.

Just saw a TV ad for a safety razor called Micro Touch One or something like that. It’s nothing more than a standard, classic safety razor that holds a single, replaceable razor blade. You know, one of these things. The ad goes on about how this was the way your daddy and presidents shaved and all that, but…

The stroke of somewhat-clever is when the ad’s spokesperson says something like: “All these fancy pants razor conglomerates add more blades to their razors. Why? To charge you more money! One blade is all a real American needs (this last line is my own addition*, but I thought the ad needed it).” My interpretation: if you buy this razor, you will be sticking it to The Man, cause The Man’s been sticking it to you. It strikes an emotional chord (anti-establishment) while making a financial argument (extra blades are a waste of money) based on dubious shaving physics (extra blades don’t shave better). The spokesperson is the guy from one of those pawn shop reality shows. Know thy audience.

*Credit to Al Bundy.

Just saw The Ten Commandments Cecil B. DeMille 1956 version. I enjoyed it very much.

I can’t take Chuck Heston seriously no matter what he says or does, mostly because all I can hear is him telling Mister Burns, “You truly are the king of kings.” Luckily, this only enhances the entertainment value of the movie.

While probably maudlin and by modern comparisons possibly banal, I find Moses’ treatment of various individuals from his past touching and maybe even moving. Maybe even instructive.

The character of Nathan comes too close to succumbing to the Iron Giant Effect at times. But as the representation of a kind of self-preservation and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately logic, he seems rational enough and quite necessary to explore the higher ideas of the movie, ie. evidence and faith.

The movie has some very inspirational special effects. And some corny ones which I still enjoyed. This could simply be because the visual effects are hand made, or, if you like, artisanal. This should be a term: Artisanal FX. I only just noticed that you can’t have artisanal without anal.

Yul Brynner’s Pharaoh offers disprovable scientific conjectures to disregard The Plagues Of Egypt. To paraphrase: The river turns red via leaching of iron oxides in the mountains which causes the frogs to flee into the fields and into human populations. This tainted water fatally poisons cattle which triggers an explosion in the pest population and an increase in the spread of disease, etc… Later, Pharaoh pays hard for his Occams Razor type rationalization.

He also has a pretty convincing speech on the self-serving impetuses of various religions, including his own. Turns out, Pharaoh’s thesis is incorrect, at least when it comes to one of said religions in light of how poorly numerous supernatural events turn out for him.

I never would have sought to see the movie. I watched it almost by accident through the magic of basic cable. I saw a movie in a theatre about the Sagrada Familia today that I’ve had circled on my calendar. Did not enjoy it. I am thoroughly in the camp that believes that the un-curated TV experience carried over from our past allows for a valuable type of media consumption.


Also, during the movie, on a major US network, I saw an ad for Farm Heroes Saga on mobile. I didn’t know they did that.

This one is about business, but stick with me here.

A mostly forgettable advert stuck in my head today. It would have been entirely forgotten, except for the tagline at the end. “We put members first, because we don’t have shareholders.” It was for Nationwide Insurance. So I did some research. Turns out there are two (or maybe more?) basic kinds of insurance companies, at least in the States, public and mutual.

Conventional wisdom, at least my wisdom, says insurance companies want to maximize payment from its members while minimizing the payouts to members. Do that well, and you gain shareholders and investment. But this model only applies to public companies. I did not know that. In principle, mutual companies basically try to break even. There’s no incentive to maximize intake (premiums and deductibles) and minimize payouts. Of course, it’s not that simple. Both models offer pros and cons to the consumer. No need to get into that here.

If you made it through the dissertation on insurance company models, here’s the interesting part. At least interesting to me. You’re in the business, so I request your opinion. This Nationwide tagline, is it a stroke of elegance? I mean elegant in that the marketer presents a fact, one that sounds like a simple fact, and lets the audience come to the conclusion that the marketer wants to convey. Isn’t there an industry name for this technique? The tagline is making a claim without making a claim and it lets the listener feel like the conclusion is a given, when the conclusion is actually debatable. In this case, mutual companies don’t necessarily and wholly put the interest of an individual member first. If you were like me and didn’t know how insurance companies work, it makes sense and sounds about right.

I was once told about a scene in Madmen. Something about a line for a cigarette company. “The one that’s cut.” (in reference to the tobacco preparation) Every company cuts the tobacco. It doesn’t matter.