Musings On Puffery, Partners And Playboy
Published: November 8th, 2011
By: Jim Mullen

Musings on puffery, partners and Playboy

Looking for a movie to go see, I checked out the ads. A blurb for one movie said it was “a real nail-biter.” Another blurb said so-and-so called it “one of the Top 10 movies of the year.”

Now, I am wise to the fact that movie ads use quotes out of context and that the original reviewer might have included this particular movie on his “Top 10 Worst Movies of the Year” list, so I took a good, close look at these quotes. Under “a real nail-biter,” it said “Bob Smith, Myspace.”

Myspace? Not even Facebook? That’s about as reliable a review as one from the guy standing behind me in the 14-items-or-fewer lane at A&P.

I don’t know if a reviewer’s blurb in a movie ad has ever convinced me to go see a movie, but this one will certainly prevent me from going.

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I’m wondering how many husbands and wives out there have separate Netflix queues (and how many people used the word “queue” before Netflix) because they cannot stand to watch the movies their partner likes. Sue got all the way through the ballet bore “Black Swan,” a movie I will never see unless I am on a deserted island and it is the only DVD on it. Even then, I would have to be stranded for a long time.

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Likewise, Sue is not much interested in sitting through “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, extended version with DVD extras. Again. Go figure.

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