Interesting ads and customer service

Okay, it's been a few days. I still need to develop this as a habit, I think. In recognition of the brief hiatus, I'm posting about two completely separate and random thoughts.

So it's possible that this is a ubiquitous thing and I've only noticed it since moving to DC and using public transit all the time, but I've taken to noticing some of the big money advertisements more. For instance:

 This is a Monsanto ad on a banner at my Metro stop. Now, I'm not making any value judgments here (that will come in approximately one or two sentences), I just find it amusing that Monsanto is positioning itself as the defender of family farming. Now I'm not saying farming doesn't have a huge impact on the country, but because this advertisement asks you to buy into the sentimentality of farming - that this one guy (and people just like him) are pure good of America. I happen to agree, actually, that farmers do drive the country to some extent. Which is to say we are all dependent on the agricultural production of our arable land, but that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of hard questions we need to be asking regarding fertilizer and pesticide use, GMOs, irrigation techniques, water usage and the impact of field drainage systems on surface and ground water (to name a few). I'm all for farming, I like to eat food at much or more than the next guy, but let's not pretend the family farmer is the easy answer to anything. But hey, go ahead and draw your own conclusions, the website is right there on the banner if you want an unbiased view (oh, actually that address takes you straight to monsanto.com, though there are some very nice pictures of farming families on their company website).

This one is also great. So, you may have heard of this small tragedy that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico about a year ago, which then continued for several months with massive international coverage and scrutiny? Right, well this seems to be an effort by the oil industry to re-frame their product. See, oil and natural gas are really, really good things, they help make medicines. And the nice woman holding that Erlenmeyer flask is saving lives! Well this is part of a larger campaign to influence public perception. This is actually least direct one that I've seen. The rest quote some figure and emphasize some aspect of American life that impacted by oil. Fine, whatever.

I also just wrote a long-winded (and I thought very amusing) story involving my coffee mug, customer service, the basic goodness of some people and my own ridiculousness, but somehow I erased it and cannot get it back. Very frustrating. Maybe I'll take another go at writing it later.