Dry cleaning clerk: “That’’ll be five weeks, dearie.”
Customer: “Five weeks? But the sign says ‘One Hour Cleaners.’”
Clerk: “That’s just the name of the shop.” — The Bonzo Dog Band, 1969, “Shirt.”
I have long wondered why there isn’t some kind of serious “truth in advertising” law because I consider too many ads, printed or broadcast, misleading and false.
I’ve been told there are regulations, but I all you have to do is look at the spate of political ads on the airways of late to get an unhealthy dose of “fake news.”
There oughta be a law.
I suppose it’s too much to ask when I am fed a daily dose of ridiculous phony assertions on Facebook every day, causing me occasionally, in a fit of pique, to unfriend those who post and spread the cancerous lies.
I thought about this again late last month when tree branches in our yard got tangled up with electric wires and caused an outage. Consumers Energy came to the rescue.
But my wife picks up the story from here, posting: “Almost two weeks ago, Consumers Energy cut several large branches from our trees. At the time, the lineman told me that their forestry division would be by to cut up and take care of the branches. He also said that public relations is really important to them right now, so they should be quick about it.
“Yup, no show. After two weeks and two phone calls, the forestry division finally called me back. Nope, they don’t take care of the branches.
Yes, I can see how important public relations is to Consumers Energy.”
This unfortunate incident resulted in my wife and I permitting dead tree branches to lay in our yard for two weeks before we finally had to do all the work of removing them ourselves. Consumers blamed the whole thing on an employee who was talking out of school.
I recall about 15 years ago when I covered a high school cross-country meet and took photos and then agreed to take my son, Robby, back to GVSU on a Sunday afternoon. I stopped in at a Walgreen’s Pharmacy with a sign that announced “One Hour Photo.”
I dropped off the roll of film and told the technician I’d be back in about an hour and a half. He told me the photos wouldn’t be ready until the following day.
I protested, saying I needed the finished photos that night because I would use them for a newspaper. He said he needed to develop and print film for a high school’s prom, so he was too busy to get it done that night.
I was regarded as a jerk for pointing to the sign that said “One Hour Photo.” He told me I couldn’t just drop in and snap my fingers to get what I wanted.
I eventually found another location for one-hour service, but not before I suffered a lot of angst and anger over the misleading advertising. The whole affair wasn’t good for my blood pressure.
I have been a longtime complainer about marketing and advertising, even these days when I listen carefully to what’s being said in those awful political ads that are long on emotion and being misleading and short on telling the truth.
It’s difficult enough these days to learn the truth. And there’s too many who don’t care about finding it.
