There are advertisements that are meant to warm your heart, to inform you, deceive you, and most of all get you to buy something you may not have otherwise bought. However, there are also shock advertisements that are meant to get people to talk.

Across the social sites this morning, everyone is talking about this new World Wildlife Foundation ad that compares the 9/11 attacks on the United States to the Tsunami in 2005. The consensus on the ad is that it was done in poor taste and it’s also a scam ad.

Scam ads have been around for awhile due to the fact that they are typically put on by advertisers and marketing firms that want to win awards. To win an award, the ad has to be published somewhere. In the case of the World Wildlife Foundation ad, it was published in a small Brazilian newspaper. It was also a print version of the ad seen above.

As long as awards for creativity are given out to ad agencies, ads like this one will be seen across the world and it will continue to shock the public when it leaks out to those who were really never supposed to see them.

You know, I was reading an article today and it said that 15.1 million people are out of work and looking for employment. At the same time there are “a lot” of $60,000 a year jobs available right now. The kinds of jobs that are hiring but can’t seem to find people to fill the positions are jobs in pharmacy, MRI techs, energy researchers, accountants, nurses, health care workers, software sales reps, actuaries, physical therapists, electrical engineers, data analysts, plant scientists, and geo-technical engineers.

As of July there was a 6 to 1 ratio of people looking for employment and open jobs. People are definitely out there looking for work, but they simply can’t find anything because of whatever conditions they have found themselves in.

In my case, I feel as though I am limited first of all, by the degree I received (in a time when most companies are cutting their marketing budgets, I graduated with a degree in marketing communications). Secondly, I feel as though I’m limited by my geographic location and being tied down to a house. I think this is where a lot of the people who are looking for work and can’t find jobs have found themselves. Right now, those who have houses don’t want to sell them because they know they’re going to take a loss on the house if they have purchased it in the last 2-5 years.

Also, no one wants to have to move when the job that they are moving for may not be completely secured. I know someone who has a house and lives there, but travels to wherever he has work. When you are contracted out for work, you cannot move around every single time you have a contract end and relocate…particularly if you have a family. Children can’t handle being uprooted several times; it is difficult for them.

Also, most of these jobs seem to be in fields that people aren’t exactly fighting to be in. At most colleges, you can compare the size of a business school class to the size of a geo-technical engineering class and I’m sure that you will notice a difference in how many students decide to go into business rather than geo-technical engineering.

Source

A disruption in the refinery of crude oil into gasoline due to a fire in a Los Angeles area refinery couldn’t even raise the price of oil and gasoline. For the first time in two months the price of a gallon of gas has fallen below $2.50 on average. Where I live, I just paid $2.38 for a gallon of regular 87 octane.

The fire at the Tesoro refinery in LA will probably effect the price of gas in California, but not too much anywhere else. The refinery processed around 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produced gasoline, jet fuel, and other products.

Demand for gasoline is so low that according to analyst and trader Stephen Schork, “a material disruption to supply to one of the largest markets in the world barely registered with speculators on the NYMEX.”

Wholesale gasoline for October actually increased 1.2 cents to $1.6323 per gallon today while benchmark crude for November delivery increased nearly 50 cents to $66.51 per barrel, this is after increasing 13 cents on Friday.

Prices have actually been increasing ever since Iran announced that it had a secret nuclear program at the G20 summit last week. This is due to the fact that 20 percent of the crude oil in the world is trafficked through the Straits of Hormuz which is on the southern coast of Iran. If something were to actually happen between the United States (or any country) and Iran, that route would be compromised  and oil would likely spike.

Of course, oil is one of the indicators of the economy. There are so many indicators and this is definitely one of them. After all, it’s oil that took a dive when people started realizing how bad the economy was last year. Oil also has started creeping back up and analysts are saying that other things are creeping up as well; such as the sale of homes and autos.

While it would be a good thing to not have to see oil reach the outrageous prices it hit last summer, I really want the economy to start picking up soon. Perhaps when it comes time for Chris and I to leave our college town, I’ll be able to land a real marketing job somewhere.

Source

No related posts.