BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?

27 Sep 02 - 09:28 AM (#792336)
Subject: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: CarolC

So I'm sitting here minding my own business, doing a little mudcatting. All of a sudden Internet Explorer spams me with a really strange pop-up ad. There's a creepy orange cat grinning and waving at me.

The ad says, "Send a greeting from (cat's name) to your friends". And it's got a fill-in form thingie for me to put the names and addresses of my friends so that they may be spammed by Internet Explorer and be waved at by the creepy orange cat.

Then I look up in the upper right corner of the spam box, and I see the logo for the US Airforce. Apparently the US Airforce is using the creepy orange cat as sucker bait to get addresses for fresh meat recruits for W's war in Iraq.

I didn't think it was possible to be blatantly insideous, but I guess I was wrong about that. This was the most blatantly insideous thing I've seen since McDonald's started putting their logo on children's clothing and selling them in department stores.

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27 Sep 02 - 09:37 AM (#792342)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Sorcha

Very weird, Carol. I hope you didn't fill in the form......

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27 Sep 02 - 10:11 AM (#792358)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: GUEST

CarolC I think you should stop smoking dope, drinking too much; or recognise abnormal paranoia when it strikes...It is probably a hoax designed to get email addy's for more commercial spamming. The US Airforce has no need to spam for cannon fodder. Tere are enough recruits for now; and I would imagine the Military in general can access details on eligible recruits by more sophisticated means.

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27 Sep 02 - 10:49 AM (#792384)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Willie-O

Guest, read the f******** message again. I don't know what the US Airforce logo is, and don't want to (but apparently I should learn), but Carol says she saw it there.

I am reading "Coercion" by Douglas Rushkoff, a bleak look at marketing strategies. Nothing your paranoia could dream up matches the truth.

W-O

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27 Sep 02 - 11:31 AM (#792410)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: GUEST,amergin

what you do is put in the email addresses of folks you don't care much for....

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27 Sep 02 - 11:35 AM (#792413)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: CarolC

Wow, Willie-O. Yeah, those market strategies are profoundly lacking in humanity, aren't they?

Guest, never think that just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you. At any rate, the logo at the top of the window said "US Airforce" (or sould I spell it Air Force?). I'll let you fill in the blanks to suit whatever may be your own level of paranoia.

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27 Sep 02 - 11:45 AM (#792421)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: McGrath of Harlow

From the guys who gave you Agent Orange... (which is still killing children)

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27 Sep 02 - 11:54 AM (#792427)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: GUEST,Don Meixner

Much as I hate to recognize a "Guest" let alone agree with them, I can't believe that The US Air Force would market itself in this manner. MY understanding from having a son trying to enlist in the Air Force is they are pretty full. It being , along with the Navy, the desireable service.

Any jack ass can grab a graphic out of Public Domain sites and attach it to any popup they wish.

I won't debate the connon fodder aspects of this thread. As a Viet Nam resister I had many sleepless nights over Greg's hopeful path. And for me I am glad he was refused entry into the military because of food allergy. (Can't have cannon fodder or deck apes who can't eat apples.) But Greg's choice was his choice to make, he had no interest in dropping bombs or shooting guns, his desire was to be of service when he was needed.

Don

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27 Sep 02 - 12:47 PM (#792455)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: mack/misophist

Steal the graphic and put it up for the rest of us. I'd love to have a creepy orange cat. Remember what's comming up next month.

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27 Sep 02 - 01:05 PM (#792463)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: M.Ted

"Blatantly insidious" is an oxymoron that I have never heard before--congratulations on creating a new one Carol!

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27 Sep 02 - 01:07 PM (#792465)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: DonMeixner

There, my cookie is back and I am myself again. A guest, tho' identified by own name, no more.

Don

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27 Sep 02 - 02:05 PM (#792520)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: DougR

I have not comment on the cat, other than to question whether or not it was legitimate. I happen to love cats but I hate pop ups.

Don: As a father myself, I sympathze with your dilemma. I admire your handling of the situation with your son, though.

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27 Sep 02 - 02:28 PM (#792536)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: DonMeixner

Thanks Doug

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27 Sep 02 - 02:35 PM (#792541)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: McGrath of Harlow

Lots of animated cats and stuff like that here. (And not a recruiting sergeant in sight.)

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27 Sep 02 - 05:50 PM (#792643)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Nerd

While the pop up does sound weird, your explanation doesn't make any sense. The Air Force would not be trawling for random email addresses in this way. There's no way to ensure that you'll be reaching 18-30 year old people with two legs and at least a high school education, which is all they're interested in. It sounds more likely that the "creepy orange cat" is an online greeting card of some kind. Do you know anyone in the Air Force? Or else that it's actually from an ad agency of some kind, looking for emails to send ads to; maybe the Air Force is just one of their clients. Or maybe there's a new brand of jeans called U.S. Airforce...I wouldn't put THAT past anyone, either...

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27 Sep 02 - 08:07 PM (#792711)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Peg

well, the military has been creating a lot of commercials (many of them shown late night and in between episodes of shows like The X-Files) featuring soldiers fightng fantasy-like creatures with swords and sorcery style weaponry...and also commercials where the combat looks like an elaborate video game...thus trying to appeal to kids and maybe even geeky kids who are into science fiction and fantasy and feel like outsiders and not masculine enough...gee, being in the Marines is like playing Dungeons and Dragons! I can kick ass just like I do at the arcade! Sign me up!

The weird orange cat does not sound all that different from any of these other advertising modus operanda...(is that plural correct?)

peg

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27 Sep 02 - 10:17 PM (#792755)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Nerd

Uh, you don't see the difference between fighting fantasy creatures in a video game and an orange cat waving at you? As any teenager will tell you, the first is cool, and the second is not. That's the essential difference: the orange cat isn't going to appeal to people who want to shoot down enemy planes.

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27 Sep 02 - 10:18 PM (#792756)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Little Hawk

Haven't seen it, but Willie-O is right...

Nothing your paranoia could dream up matches the truth.

Nothing.

People don't want to know the truth. They would despair if they did. And that is why addictive substances and addictive behaviour are so endemic in today's society.

So, just have another drink, toke, cigarette, or loveless sexual experience, or watch another dumb action movie with lots of explosions, or lose yourself in whatever your chosen escape is, GUEST, and pretend that everything's okay out there in "consumer-land".

"Your coffin's been prepared, it's on the way...New World Order USA" (excerpt from a song I wrote some years ago)

- LH

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27 Sep 02 - 10:46 PM (#792767)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: khandu

Carol C,

Outside the boundaries of the Polka Circus, this is a sad world. The Air Force using the orange cat would not surprise me, after all, some wine company used Orson Welles to tout their brew! Some auto maker used Jethro Tull to tout their car! I knew then that this world was headed for bad times.

Hell, as I think more upon the subject, where is that Polka Circus...I want in!

khandu

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28 Sep 02 - 12:25 AM (#792803)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Stephen L. Rich

That is the creepiest pop-up of which I have ever heard.

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28 Sep 02 - 12:30 AM (#792806)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Tweed

Sounds like HooDoo to me CarolC. You needz a Mojo bag or sumpin'. Go HERE. Mebbe some hot foot powder or buckeye nuts wud do the trick ;~)
Tweed

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28 Sep 02 - 12:37 AM (#792808)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: MAG

I've had to get rid of that cat on our Inet terminals at work. A bitch to get rid of. -- MA

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29 Sep 02 - 02:52 AM (#793315)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: CarolC

Sorry misophist. It's gone, and since it was a pop-up ad, I don't know how to find it again.

Thanks M.Ted! I was kind of proud of myself about that ;-)

Right on, LH!

Hey khandu! Did you catch the ad Mecerdes Benz was running a few years ago using Janis Joplin singing "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz" in the background? The one that really capped it, in my opinion, was the ad for Lexus or some other kind of luxury car with the hymn "Simple Gifts" playing in the background.

It is, indeed, a funny old world outside the boundaries of the Polka Circus. Unfortunately, I'm not permittd to tell anyone how to find the Polka Circus unless they can demonstrate to me that they play the accordion. Do you know the secret handshake?

Thanks for the mojo, Tweed. I coudn't help noticing that the book in the first link had a cat on the cover ;^O

MAG, do you know anything about who's behind that pop-up ad?

( ,.gargoyle, tell us more about the pages you cannot "capture" and the pictures that "are not there".)

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30 Sep 02 - 02:31 AM (#793847)
Subject: RE: BS: Scary-weird? Or just my imagination?
From: Kaleea

Why don't we all respond to the scary orange kitty ad (apologies to my sweet 19-yr old black & white tuxedo kitty who looks a little like Sylvester the cat--no lisp, though)& enlist all of the out-of-tune-musicians we suffer through at jams & open mics? Why stop there, lets clean out the prisons & also enlist all of the TV evangelists. But to bring peace to the entire world, let's all fill in those forms & enlist all the politicians many of whose names & addresses & other info are public information to us all! I wanna see 'em haul them thar fatcats (sorry again, kitty--no offense!)--especially all of 'em who've been up there for more than one term--off of capitol hill, & send 'em right to boot camp! It should also stand to reason that all the world leaders must be drafted into the French Foreign Legion & sent to guard the radioactive remains of Chernobl. Please, don't thank me! Just DO IT!

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