Matt's Weblog » Rant I guess

Election 2008 – McCain vs. Obama

Matt Tennison — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:46:25 +0000

Photo Courtesy Dean Terry

Anyone else tired of the election yet? I’m very excited that we only have one week left! Twitter has been almost unbearable some days, especially if a debate is on.

I know who I’m voting for, but it hasn’t come easily. I’ve had to do a lot of thinking, and consider both sides. I know that there is a clear choice for me now, but if my guy doesn’t win, it’ll be interesting to watch how it turns out.

I live in an economically depressed town, and that tends to sway voters a certain direction. They’re looking in the wrong direction. And those who are looking at the other candidate, they’re looking in the wrong direction too.

There’s nothing wrong with voting. We live in a democratic society, and if we have the ability to influence who is elected to the highest office, we should partake in that liberty. But they all tell us what we want to hear. they’ll all make promises they can’t keep. Compromises will be made, and we won’t even anticipate what’s coming in the next four years. Either way, we can’t look to the president to save us.

Vote for who you think the best candidate is, and then look to the only source of hope.

Did you really answer the question?

Matt Tennison — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:05:56 +0000

I was listening to a radio ad for a university today. They asked “If you could do something to make your life better right now, would you?” And then they launched into a sales pitch for their university (“call the university today to sign up for fall classes, we have……”). Then they finished up with a call-to-action something like “call today and register”.

There is something very subtle in that commercial. They begin by asking a question, and then go directly into telling us about their product. Problem is, they never really say that their product is the answer to the question. It’s like this:

Commercial: “Would you like to know how to bake cookies?”

Me: “Heck yeah! I likes me some cookies!”

Commercial: “OK! We teach math lessons better than anyone else. Call us today for more information!”

Me: “Wha?”

In my example, the business has a great service, and many people could benefit from math lessons. But math lessons don’t answer the question “Would you like to know how to bake cookies”, nor do they provide a solution if you DO want to know how to bake cookies.

That brings up another point with asking a question at the beginning of a commercial – like what if the answer is not as you anticipated it? Of course it is assumed that a reasonable person would want to make their life better. If a person will do anything to make that happen is the real question. But the purpose of this post is to point out that they don’t tie it all together. If you’re going to ask me if I want to know how to make cookies, you’d better explain to me how you can help me know how to make cookies.

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