Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for July 23, 2022

“ASK your doctor about…”

Ainʻt got any mercy.

Yesterday

About the same time Google Maps on my cell phone told me to take a right turn at Taco Bell instead of using the street name.

Just wait till you see the ad that comes with STOP!

Twenty minutes into the future.

DON’T WALK by Joe’s Diner

Walk sign product placement.

DON"T WALK without a new pair from Ace Footwear.

It is closer than we think. Amazon has bought so many companies and plans to buy more that there won’t be a market anymore. What happened to the FTC?

Good god man! Don’t give them ideas!

Look at that smol dog!!

It’s been happening for a long time. Bit by bit, too slowly to notice until you look back and compare.

The city always needs more revenue.

Sign of the Times.

https://imgur.com/HleK6l5

I wonder if they realize just how many of us totally ignore all ads anymore? We adjust our computer screens so they don’t show those irritating flashy ads around the sides; we automatically ‘tune out’ when the TV/radio show transitions to a commercial; and we automatically delete/block emails and texts that don’t come from someone on our contact list, that ID a company or a cause, or whose address is just a first name — our friends with those names don’t send messages that way. And, those ads that show up pushing something we researched online just get laughed at — by the time they show up, we have either purchased the item or decided against it. My recommendation to companies is to stop paying so much for irritating ads and put some of that money into making sure they include all the pieces needed for assembly, that all the pieces are the right size and color, and that the directions are clear and complete.

In one of Heinlein’s young reader books, “Between Planets,” there is a scene in which the main character gets into a cab and there is a screen blaring ad after ad. He pays the driver to mute the sound, but the TV screen couldn’t be turned off. He saw the future and it is now.

Must be wearing the glasses from the movie “They Live.”

When you voted down the bond issue.

This is what governments do when you complain about taxes. The sell ads instead.

WALK this Way-Re-release by Aerosmith and DON’T WALK this way by Run DMC

Then it switches to “Wait, there’s more!”.

It’s viral. Even gocomics has ads in the page header. Gotta find some way to survive.

Shades of the prescient movie, Idiocracy. “Private Joe Bauers, a decisively average American, is selected as a guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten, awakening to a future so incredibly moronic he’s easily the most intelligent person alive.”

Love the dog