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Interesting Ads?

awesomebrad — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:22:56 -0800

Know of any interesting advertisements? For one of my classes, I must analyze a current print, radio, television, or internet advertisement. Since I'm going to be spending a good deal of time with whatever ad I choose to analyze, I'd like to make sure that it's at least interesting.

Although not ideal, an ad campaign may be acceptable. Something that stands alone is, however, preferable.

Bonus points if it's available online, more bonus points if you link me to what you suggest.

So, what are the most innovative, eye catching, different, or just plain interesting ads you've come across recently?

Getting a lease with an unpleasant background

cmonkey — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 13:42:16 -0800

MetaFilter landlords: Please help me aquire a lease... Three friends of mine & I are looking for a new place to live. They all have low paying jobs, but great credit. I have a high paying job, but atrocious credit and no recent rental history (I've lived in houses for the last 5 years without being on a lease). My friends keep getting rejected because they're poor, so I need to apply with them. A few questions to those of you who rent property out:

1) Is there anything that I can do to convince a landlord that, regardless of my poor credit and missing rental history, I am actually a good tenant with a stable job who has never once paid rent late or destroyed a house? Any bribes that would work?
2) What services do you use for background checks? I'm curious what's in mine.
3) If a place says "no application fees" does that mean that they don't do background checks?

(This is a followup to this question, thanks for your help!)

I've never read the paper and now at 30+ want to educate myself on Politics, Gov, Current Events, World History, etc. Where to start?

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 19:13:14 -0800

I'm over 30 and probably know as much or less about history, politics/ gov, and current events as my 7 year old niece. Now, I want to be aware and don't know where to begin. I've tried just "merging in" but the references, terms, and names are lost on me. I need a starting point that will give me a framework or bird's eye view to start from and build on. I've always steered away from news and never got the paper. I didn't realize I was doing it so much; I just wanted all the negative stuff to go away.
A little bkgd: I don't know what the funny part is in political jokes and satire because I have no familiarity with who or what event they're talking about. And the radio, I half tune-out because I'm lost in all the names and summits and groups and organizations that all have some abbreviated name, not to mention the official titles that go with all the public figures' names.

I would like to know what the heck is going on in the world today, and how we got here. Any suggestions? biographies, dvds, magazines, websites, reference books... Resources that are presented in an easily approachable and engaging way would be great --after all if I enjoyed this topic, I wouldn't be in this situation.

My wiring frightens and confuses me

FortyT-wo — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 22:24:15 -0800

My boyfriend and I live in a flat built in the '20s. We have reason to suspect that the outlets provide inconsistent amount of electrical current. Is there something we need to get for our computers to protect them? You can't plug any appliances into some outlets in the house because they'll run at a snail's pace. Some outlets seem to do fine, but an additional problem is lack of outlets, which I know is very common in houses this old.

The main concern is the room where we have our computers. There is only one outlet in this room (two plugs). Into this outlet we have a daisy-chain of surge protectors and two computers with monitors, a TV, two lamps, some external HDs, musical equipment such as keyboard and mixers, and various things like cell-phone and battery chargers, etc. We've often marveled that we don't cause a brownout or blow a fuse in that room. In this same room, the wiring on a chandalier exploded shortly after we moved in. We found that it was the old-style fabric covered wire, and it basically crumbled when touched. I imagine that's what's behind the walls as well.

Since we moved here, my boyfriend's computer has rather abruptly started behaving erratically, and today something happened with my monitor that caused it to emit an incredibly high-pitched tone and not turn on. I had to unplug it for a bit to make it stop.

He was wondering whether the electricity is the cause. And if so, if there were some appliance that we could insert between the electronics and the outlet that would regulate current.

We're having a struggle getting the landlord just to address problems that no tenant can legally be expected to live with. He's not a slumlord, but it seems to take him forever to do anything, even when it's rather important. There is no hope whatsoever that he'd have an electrician look at the wiring in the house and pay for its repair unless we were completely without electricity.

Moving into another room with more outlets isn't an option because the computers and desks won't fit elsewhere in the house, and there aren't other rooms with 3-prong outlets besides the kitchen.

We're fools about eletricity, and my searching didn't turn up anything, likely because I don't know what to search for. We're worried that we may be slowly destroying our electronics.

Why is wireless electric current not possible?

PrinceValium — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 06:42:25 -0800

If we can have wireless voice communication and wireless data transfer, why can't we have wireless electric current?

International Voltage Adapters

lkc — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 02:23:08 -0800

International Voltage adapters... OK, so I am leaving Japan with a variety of different gizmos at different consumer grades, but I am not completely clear on what I will need to do to run it. I have been running my american turntables here for a couple years with no problems, but they are modern and have switches for different currents. I am more worried about my high end stuff, I have a few pieces of hardware that take the standard appliance type cable (like you plug into a computer or a monitor), and are shipped worldwide, but I am totally unclear how the ratings work. Does anyone have any experience with this? Am I better off getting one here before I move back? Should I also get new power cables rated for u.s. outlets. I probably will anyway, as it doesnt seem worth risking this much over a $6 cable, but any input would be helpful.

Additionally, I have a few other things (like an mp3 player) that take regular DC adaptors, do these fall under the same rules? I checked a few other boards through google, but it seemed like most people were giving very conflicting answers, and I know people here have done the transpacific jump. I have seen japanese things on adapters work, but not under extended or heavy use.

The bigger stuff I plan to just leave in one place, but it would be nice to be able to keep the player and a few other things portable, being able to carry the adapter without needing the extra baggage.

Oh, I have heard that there are different power standards in different parts of Japan, I am in tokyo, and planning on swinging out to akihabara for this stuff in the next couple days, so the sooner, the better.

I can't get my head around how microchips work.

willnot — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 14:28:16 -0800

How do microchips work?

I understand it at a very basic level. I know that when you apply current to a semiconductor, it becomes conductive, and that this closes the gate in a transistor. By opening or closing the right gates, you're able to do basic counting and logical operations.

Here though, my conceptual model totally falls apart. Because try as I might, I can't get my head around exactly what it is that controls the current going to the semiconductor in the gate in the first place. How does the microprocessor know to open or close a particular gate? It seems like if it already knew to open or close a gate, then the operation has already been done. It's like you'd need another microprocessor controlling the current within the first microprocessor, and so an and so on back to some omniscient prime mover.