Categories
Consumerism

Kmart – promoting responsible parenting

(Or: Acting on childhood obesity.)

Categories
Consumerism Retrospectives TV

There’s at least a dozen ways to save our petrol

M was telling me about an ad from the 70s telling people to save petrol. I had absolutely no recollection of it, but sure enough, Mr Youtube had it… What a cracker! I couldn’t figure out why they made the cartoon people nude, but a comment suggested it was to grab people’s attention. Perhaps I  ... [More]

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Consumerism Food'n'drink Geek

Time to go shopping

Both my digital camera and my electric shaver are on their last legs, in need of replacement. I don’t think either has done too badly. The Canon A70 camera was bought in April 2003, and from memory cost me about $600 at the time. The technology has got better and cheaper, and I expect a  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism Geek

Almost new phone time

I’m about due for a phone upgrade. I haven’t made my mind up whether it’ll be iPhone or Android. Some will have very strong views on these. I’ll make up my mind closer to purchase time, but meanwhile there are some other factors I’m considering. Radio waves All phones emit radio waves. Some more than  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism transport

Southern Cross Station gets Chromed

I was impressed enough by the Google Chrome advertising at suburban railway stations, such as this poster at South Yarra. Then someone told me Southern Cross Station had also had a Chrome makeover. Sure enough… Apparently this Internet thingummy-wotsit has some money behind it. (Note the banners along the sides of the upper deck.)

Categories
Consumerism

Converting points to cash

CommBank offered to convert my Awards points into cash, with a 10% bonus. It’s 96,000 points, normally worth $480, but with the bonus it’s $529. So it’s 181 points to the dollar (normally 200 points to the dollar). In comparison, one of their Rewards is an Xbox 360 Kinect 4GB Console Bundle. This is 90,000  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism

Guide dogs accepted

Sometimes when I don’t have a blog post ready to go — either because I’m halfway through writing something, or I just can’t think of anything to post — I’ll instead post a photo or two that I’ve taken. Here’s today’s. I can’t help feeling that this sign would scan better if it said “excepted”  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism transport

Why is Metro allowing this advertising in its stations?

I suppose it’s inevitable that if you sell advertising space, sometimes you’ll be allowing advertising for your competitors. And advertising for cars is commonly found on public transport. But some of Nissan’s advertising around Flinders Street station goes a step further by directly criticising the public transport it is competing with, with slogans such as  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism

The new Myer

The inside of the new Myer in Bourke Street is quite spectacular. They’ve managed to create a very impressive light-filled atrium that goes all the way up to the roof.

Categories
Consumerism TV

Franco Cozzo

If you’re ever at Footscray Station on the footbridge (the one they’re going to have to knock down extend, even though they just built it), and you look towards the east, you’ll see something from a bygone era. You might just be able to make out the words “Franco Cozzo” on an off-white building in  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism TV

New television?

I’ve been thinking for a while about updating my television (a 68cm Loewe CRT, non-widescreen, analogue) to a shiny new digital number. People who know more about this stuff than I suggested I look at Samsung’s offerings. I know I’ve had two Samsung computer monitors for years which haven’t missed a blip, so I took  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism

Christmas is over

Christmas must be over. Reason 1: Dead Christmas trees on the nature strip Reason 2: Hot cross buns in the supermarket… just in time, only four three and a half months before Easter. Speaking of the supermarket, it does seem like trolley retention rates are increasing since they started wanting a gold coin deposit… so  ... [More]