12 July 2014

Heart-breaker: Pram, Never Used, *Not* For Sale.

As a surprising twist on one of the shortest stories out there ("For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn") we have this heart-breaking story.  Pram, never used, *not* for sale.  I would pay a silly amount of money for this pram.  Well, if I had somewhere amazing to display it...


11 July 2014

Truly Of Biblical Proportions - It's Coming In Only 7 Weeks!

I know the headline reads like linkbait, but oh dear God, this has caused tears to start running down my face.  It has to happen in the UK, it has to...  Don't make me beg.  Please....!!


10 July 2014

Tesco Find A New Pathway To Failing At Basic Maths

The strange thing is, this didn't shock me that much. Not being able to spot that £1.50 is not 25% of £8, despite such a simple check. If dividing by 4 is too hard for you, just half it and have it again - even a child can do that!

26 April 2014

Unintentional Institutional Racism In Advertising

UKIP have had a bit of attention this week for alleged 'racist' adverts ahead of the European elections. I've only seen this one advert complaining about excessive EU salaries. That's a relatively safe opinion to voice. Just so long as they don't put the advert up next to something that can be misconstrued....! It would seem that in advertising, positioning is everything - in both senses of the word.

Update: It seems someone has posted this *after* me on Twitter and then had it picked up by Edinburgh Evening News. 
http://m.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/ukip-poster-next-to-no-poles-required-tent-ad-1-3392092

31 March 2014

The Only Flight From Edinburgh To Edinburgh Has Been Cancelled!

Oh no! Arried at Edinburgh airport early morning to find that the 08:55 FlyBe flight from Edinburgh airport to "Edinburgh" has been cancelled! I was looking forward to the shortest flight ever! 

13 March 2014

Princes Mall Possesses Party Season - Or Can't Punctuate!

Ah, Princes Mall... That weird "shopping centre" attached to Edinburgh Waverley railway station. It seems in your quest for attention you've grabbed mine but fot the wrong reasons! So you have your own party season and you refer to yourself in the 3rd person now...? What else could you mean in this photo when you write "its party season"...? Unless your marketing team and printers don't understand basic English structures like apostrophe for contractions, such as it is becoming it's. Here's an example for you: It's a shame Princes Mall doesn't use a proof reader.

9 February 2014

Co-op Against Independence And - Or Basic Geography Knowledge

Wow, never expected The Co-operative supermarket to come out with such an early pro-union message! Near the West End of Edinburgh, the Friday before the Scotland vs England 6 Nations game, in their supermarket closest to Murrayfield (depending on travel direction), the Co-op proudly promote a special offer on Coca Cola when you buy the Coventry Telegraph - a paper for a city a mere 300 miles away and in another country! I can't see what else this could be other than an anti-independence statement - surely no one could be that oblivious to put that out by mistake?

Taylor Walker's Classic Pub Food? Classic Mistake!

Sigh. Big companies are still making the same basic mistakes. How can you seriously not employ a proof reader with marketing / quality assurance that has a decent grade at GCSE English?

So Taylor Walker pubs have "classic pub food" do they? Well, as the possessive apostrophe doesn't exist in the third person generic, their follow up line must mean "at it is best!". Unsurprisingly that doesn't get my taste buds tingling, instead it gets my grammar goat up!

26 January 2014

Tesco Ireland Have So Much Better Worse Deals Than The UK

Ahh, Tesco.  You never fail to entertain me.  So here I am in Ireland towards the end of last year, looking at coffee.  Whilst there are no multibuys to tempt me, there is always economies of scale.  For example, one 227g bag of 3 strength / flavour ground coffee is €3.05, but you can get twice that amount for err €6.49.  But if you increase the intensity of the coffee then the negative savings get even better!  4 flavour coffee is a steal at €2.39 a bag, but you'd have to be insane not (not) to buy twice that amount almost 3 times as much, just €6.99.  Good to see Tesco enforcing standards across their global stores...


18 January 2014

(Glasgow) Evening Times - Haunting Sponsor of Celtic Connections

Have I been watching to many J-Horror films?  Because sitting in a lovely venue for the opening Saturday of the Celtic Connections music festival I naturally scanned around the room.  Unsurprisingly I saw a sponsor, the (Glasgow) Evening Times.  What is frightening is that the image they use has trailing blood from a haunting female ghostly face.  Start at her little finger coming off the end of her bow.  Just above, can you see two chilling eye sockets?  And leading down from her little finger, the definite structure of a nose, and below that a blood red mouth open - trying to communicate her warning from the other side...?  Apt choice of a violin to play the scary music...