A rose is not a rose

Last night I saw an ad on tv for the “new” Shreddies cereal. Apparentely the brilliant folks over at Post have discovered that they can now make Shreddies that are not square shaped but *here comes the shock and awe part* are diamond shaped. Wow. Turn your square 45 degrees to the right ( or left if you’re so inclined) and voila! you now have a diamond shaped Shreddie. Now that’s what I call marketing. As much as I admire the simpleness, and effectiveness, of the ad it scares me to think how many people will buy a box of diamond shape Shreddies and wonder why they only got squares. Ok, ok, I know. Most people aren’t that dumb. Most people know they’re being manipulated but they go along with it anyways and buy the box of cereal. Why? I dunno. There’s a myriad of reasons, I’m sure. Most likely, it comes from our human need to want something newer and better. We want to believe that the world is changing and it’s for the better. Who wants squares when we can have diamonds? No one ever said squares are a girl’s best friend.

Marketing works and that’s why companies invest so much money and resources into it. An excellent example (god! there’s so many to choose from but this one really burns me up) is a Montreal handbag company that have positioned their bags in the market place as a vegetarian option to leather. Plastic. (I don’t want to mention their name because I don’t believe in giving free publicity to companies who’s business practices I don’t agree with but you probably know who I’m talking about.)

Anyway, this company recently won an award for being a Canadian company to expect big things from so they’re doing really well. It amazes me that so many people are buying into it. Basically they are selling your basically medium quality plastic handbags. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. Although personally I laugh whenever I see women with their stylish, plastic masquerading as leather hangbags to compliment their sooo sophicated outfits. Last I heard pleather was cheap and embarrassing. But don’t tell them that.

If you ask me, it’s a far better thing to kill an animal and use it’s hide to make numerous bags than to make a bag from petroleum based toxic to produce plastic. It’s not news to anyone that wars are being fought now for cheaper and more secure access to “petroleum”, and the world’s climate change challenges are major issues that impact us all. Kill the cows not the people and the planet! ow. I know I’m going to get flack for that comment. But seriously, if you really cared about the animals on this planet you woudn’t kill their home.

Buyer beware! but people buy into it anyway. I’m sure some people just buy the bags for the style and the affordable price, but there are many others that buy into the whole vegetarian angle that the company promotes. Now that’s what I call good marketing/