03 March 2007

Unfortunate Ad Campaigns

There's been a sign up all winter at the local Grease Monkey. "Cold Weather is here. Stop in now." It seems odd that they would need to stock up on cold weather when it's in plentiful abundance in the outside world, don't you think? It sure reads like they're saying we should all stop in and get our cold weather there! ;^)

Another sign is part of an Albertson's ad campaign. I don't know how long it's been going on, but they have the slogan up on the doors into their store: "Three's a crowd. Get in, get out!" I just stared at it the first time I saw it. It made no sense whatsoever. The only possible meaning I came up with was "Get your groceries fast 'cause we don't want you here." Then I saw the full ad, further inside the store. It was referring to a policy where they would open up another register if there were more than three people waiting in line. Their shortened version does not convey this idea unless you've seen the full ad.

A more amusing one is from the History Channel. "The Dark Ages, starting March 9th."

Then there's the Pine Ridge Mall slogan: "What brings YOU here?" Well, my feet brought me from the car to the door, the car brought me from my house... Some people take the bus or ride their bikes...

At least the Museum of Idaho's current tagline bears some resemblance to its featured Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: "Ink and Blood." (Also a DVD! A 72 page pamphlet! A coffee cup! A poster!) It was pretty cool to see some actual fragments from the scrolls. They also had a bunch of antique bibles on display. Some of the illuminated ones are gorgeous. Interestingly, each display case had a long tray of what looked like salt (white and crystalline), as well as a temperature/humidity gauge. I suppose the crystals absorb humidity, or something similar. The gauges I saw ranged from 47-49% humidity, and all were a uniform 68° F. But there was a rather tasteless, tacky, and disturbing item on sale in the gift shop: replicas of crucifixion nails. *sighs*

ADDENDUM: The official site has a thumbnail list of the artifacts on display.

4 comments:

Fibonacci said...

The ironic thing is, I visited the actual Dead Scrolls museum in Israel, and didn't see anything but replicas. The real ones were in climate-controlled underground chambers.

Qalmlea said...

I think the actual Dead Sea Scroll fragments were all very tiny. The largest might have been around one inche by two, and most were small enough that there was only one word.

There were larger fragments from other sources, like some old New Testament sources, but no large Sea Scroll fragments. Probably they don't take the largest, most useful ones, out to guest museums. :^)

Fibonacci said...

No, but at one point the Isaiah scroll was kept for a while by a U.S. president as collateral on a loan to Israel.

Qalmlea said...

Cool. Or possibly lukewarm, depending on what temperature it has to be kept at. ;^)