Music For The Masses

•September 7, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I know a lot of people that like to talk about how the music industry is in a terrible state. How “popular” music is all dull, monotonous, uninspiring pap and no one is doing enough to fix it.

I’m really not that convinced.

We all know that Simon Cowell is Satan’s role model – that he makes a fortune exploiting idiots. But is he the cause of the state of the industry?

No.

You’re probably assuming that the idiots I just referred to are the poor, dumb contestants on his abortion of a reality show. Well, that’s only 1% of them. The rest are the general public. The Great British Population.

Last year’s final was watched by 20 million people. One third of the country’s population and TWO thirds of everyone that was watching TV in it’s timeslot. This is always a good statistic to have in the arsenal when people reel out the argument that not THAT many people watch. That it’s all down to the viewers voting multiple times and really, only a tiny percentage of the public are interested in it.

That’s simply not true.

We are surrounded by idiots.

The majority of the general public think that the absolute height of musical talent is being able to just carry a tune – to rattle off a song that someone else wrote without going out of tune … and of course, to do it whilst half naked, girating like a drunken prostitute in a Dutch window.

It amazes me that half way through the series of one of these shitty shows, when Cheryl Cole decided to perform, everyone’s immediate reaction was …

“THAT’s showed them how it’s done! Wow! She’s BRILLIANT!”

Fuck off.

At the start of the 80’s, it seemed like all the people with influence in the music industry all made a bet with each other, much like the $1 bet in the Eddie Murphy movie, Trading Places. It’s as though they bet that within 10 years, they could take a country full of people with taste – people that were fans of classic rock, motown, progressive rock, funk, reggae … and turn them into mindless proles that would step over their own grandmother for Rick Astley’s latest single.

And the sad thing is, they succeeded.

All emphasis was taken away from the talent of good songwriting, musicianship and performance and we were left with a lot of pretty people singing the most horrendous, meaningless crap ever produced.

Boy/Girl bands were the biggest offenders of course, but they were nowhere near the only ones. The situation has deteriorated ever since and we are left with a bombardment of bad karaoke singers filling the charts, the radio waves and our ears on a daily basis.

It’s gotten to the point that no one actually knows what good music is anymore. They THINK they know, but they simply don’t.

It has been drummed into everyone that a song is only good if it goes:

Intro-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus-Fade

Any variation from that set pattern is met with a look of bewilderment and disgust.

“What do you mean, it’s instrumental?”

You may as well spit in their face as present them with something that will be different in any way to the last song they heard. Music is no longer listened to. It’s just droning on in the background, unimportant. And THAT is the real reason behind the decline in standards.

The X Factor is back. And with it, the same few people will come out of the woodwork and say that it’s destroying the music industry. No doubt another campaign to keep the winner off the top of the charts will succeed again this year. But is that the answer?

The X Factor is a symptom of the disease, not the cause. What we need is a re-education of the masses as to what music is FOR. Music is about emotion. If the only thing that passes through your mind while a song is on is an image of the incredibly hot singer girating in hot pants, then the music itself is not moving you.

The really sad thing is that there is a lot of excellent, groundbreaking music to be found if you are willing to look past the “recommended single of the week” in iTunes. Whatever your taste, there is something excellent for you. It takes practically no effort.

We are 2 generations into this atrocious swamp of mindless music. The truly talented people will not last forever. Sooner or later the only people left making music will have no idea why Led Zeppelin were so good. Or why a live Prince or Pink Floyd show can still outsell any other act on the planet. We will be left with a crop of Arctic Monkey and Coldplay clones.

I really can’t believe that anyone with a soul would want that to happen.

Posted in General Misery, Media Hype
Tags: , , , ,

Taxi Drivers

•August 20, 2010 • 2 Comments

Taxi Drivers. The humble cabbie. Have you ever taken a second to consider just how annoying they are?

The whole taxi system is annoying in itself. Whether you need a cab straight away or you want to book one for the near future, the odds of it turning up within 30 minutes of the expected time are 50/50 at best. In fact, there’s probably a 10% chance of it not turning up at all – and you’ll have to call the company again and get the classic “He’s just round the corner” lie.

Of course, if you’re already out, you can flag down a black cab. But half of the time, even if they are available, they’ll ignore you – obviously have somewhere more important to be! If you’re lucky enough to get one of them to stop, you’ll notice that as soon as they start the metre, you’re already 2 or 3 pounds into your fare. They’d have you believe that it’s a surcharge that they just have to add on – but it’s strange that if you used a non-black cab for the same journey, the cost would mysteriously be about 2 to 3 pounds less …

Is this some extra charge connected to the different type of cab? I seriously doubt it. They just know they can get away with it, so they do!

Drivers of these Black Cabs are also the big offenders in several areas of my taxi annoyance.

One of these areas, although certainly not limited to the black cabs, is the utter inability to drive like a normal person. They fly round corners at what feels like 40 miles per hour, throwing you, their customer, around in the back of the cab like cattle. It seems to me that this is totally intentional. The heavy braking, the uneven acceleration, the G Forces they manage to pull going round the mildest of corners … they simply CANNOT be that bad at driving.

Or is it merely a symptom of the Professional Driver?
Is it that, like the dreaded “White Van Men“, they have gotten to the point where they don’t think the laws of driving apply to them anymore?

I don’t remember the last time I saw a taxi driver indicate to leave a roundabout … or even the last journey in a taxi where the driver didn’t cut someone up at some point.

And have you ever experienced a cab driver telling YOU where you can and can’t go? What the hell is that about?

“Nah, mate. I’m not going there this time of night. I knock off in half an hour.”

You fucking What?

I’ve even had cab drivers and companies refuse fares because they deem the distance not to be great enough to require a cab! Does it not occur to you that I hailed a cab to get me somewhere QUICKLY? Yes, I could walk to the train station in about 15 minutes. But my train leaves in 8 … you wanker!

Either way, it’s your JOB to drive me wherever I want! I’ll still be paying you! And if you’re not a complete twat about it, you’ll probably even get a tip!

But, while annoying, the Cabbies complete lack of consideration for their passengers, their nonexistant driving abilities and their general idiotic behaviour are just the tip of the iceberg.

There are very few jobs in which you could fail to do the one thing you’re supposed to do and get away with blaming your customer. But with surprising regularity, taxi drivers fail to find either the place you want to be picked up or the destination you’ve given them. That wouldn’t be so bad if they would admit they were at fault … but it’s always the customer’s fault!

HOW DARE I LIVE IN A STREET YOU CAN’T FIND!
HOW DARE I WANT TO GO TO A PLACE YOU DON’T KNOW!

Well, I gave you perfectly clear instructions, fuckstick. If you can’t follow simple directions, MAYBE taxi driver is a bad choice of profession for you!

The one saving grace for the black cab is that they’re in a different compartment of the vehicle to you, so you don’t have to put up with the incessant cheerfulness that is exhibited by the private cab driver. Just what kind of drugs are these arseholes on?

It’s 7am, and they’re in the mood for a fucking chat!

SHUT UP!

I’m not even one coffee into the day yet! Talking to me in this state WILL NOT END WELL.

I don’t want to know what time you started, what time you finish, who you had in your cab yesterday, what the weather is supposed to be doing this weekend or any other drivel you may find interesting in your current state of agitation. Just drive me where I want to go and keep your mouth shut! Please!

AND THAT INCLUDES WHISTLING.

Is it a pre-requisite for private cabbies that they are able to whistle their way through every track on Heart Fucking FM’s current playlist? It’s almost like the cabbies are given early copies of all the tunes so they can get to the right annoying standard of whistling for when the playlists are updated.

Their range is unbelievable! From Marvin Gaye to Coldplay! From Duffy to Queen! ANY tune on that abomination of a radio station that seems to be the chosen soundtrack for every one of them is whistled from beginning to end with that annoying, unnecessary cheeriness that only they and (ironically) Heart FM DJ’s seem to have mastered.

It’s surprising to me that so few taxi drivers are the subject of road-rage, passenger initiated attacks and even the victims of serial killers. Because, for me they’re up there with Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan on the list of the top 10 annoying people on the planet.

Posted in General Misery, People Skills

Mini-Rant: ATM Surfers

•August 11, 2010 • Leave a Comment

ATM’s are a constant source of irritation in my life.

There seems to be an inordinate amount of people that either don’t know how to use them or like them so much, they spend a ridiculous amount of time playing with them at every visit.

First, these machines are NOT difficult to use. They have a simple user interface that a monkey could be taught to master.

Enter PIN.
Select Cash.
Select Amount.
Done!

Yet, I’m constantly getting stuck behind people that stare at the ATM’s screen with a look of complete confusion on their face. What is wrong with these people? It’s in simple English! If you can’t read and understand a sentence as straightforward as “Please Enter Your PIN“, I think you’re beyond help.

And quite frankly, I’m amazed that you even have money IN your account. Surely you’re not intelligent enough to have earned it? Some kind of mental disability benefit, I assume.

Then you have the annoying bastards … mostly women, it must be said … that step up to the ATM and proceed to use every function it offers … and then some! I don’t even know what they could be doing for the amount of time they spend pissing about at the machine.

I use them to withdraw cash. This takes less than 45 seconds. But using the other functions only takes a few seconds each! What can possibly be stretching out these people’s visits to 5 or 6 minutes??

I have a theory that they have somehow become aware of an easter-egg-type hidden feature that unlocks a game of fucking Frogger or something and that they’re spending 5 minutes or more trying to avoid the traffic, jump on the logs, not get eaten by crocodiles and eventually make it to the top of the screen – presumably for a cash prize! Or maybe it’s just a simple fruit machine interface they’re unlocking. Line up the 3 cherries and get an extra fiver added to your balance!

It’s the only logical explanation.

So, they’ve checked their balance, printed a statement (which has now been casually tossed to the floor), topped up their phone, withdrawn £10, then decided they need another £20 and withdrawn that too … they’ve had a game of Frogger and a few spins on the fruit machine … and FINALLY, they remove their card and you’re thinking “Thank God! I was losing the will to live, here!”

OH, BUT THEY’RE NOT DONE!

Another 30 seconds or so of rummaging and another damn card is fished out of their purse and the whole sorry process starts again.

What, are these people trying to manage two bank accounts? If so, why?
It seems to me that, if they are, then both are insufficiently stocked with cash. Otherwise, they’d be able to withdraw that full £30 that they needed from either one and be done with the ATM in a quarter of the time …

Or maybe it’s me that’s the unreasonable one here! Maybe it’s normal to have 2, 3 or more bank accounts and I’m the freak cos I only have one! But that doesn’t change the fact that the people standing in front of me at the cashpoint had better start making an effort to be less annoying and idiotic or they’ll find themselves being chased down the road by a real car … and believe me, it’ll be a damn sight harder to avoid being squished than when they’re playing Frogger.

Posted in General Misery, People Skills
Tags: , ,

The Inception Confusion

•August 11, 2010 • Leave a Comment

From the day that it opened, I’ve heard people saying that the joy of watching “Inception” lies in floundering about, never knowing whether you’re in a dream or reality.

Um … What??

For me, it was made entirely and completely clear when we were seeing reality and when we were seeing a dream.

OK, it started in a dream and we were supposed to think it was reality for a few minutes. But that shouldn’t have fooled anyone – We knew the movie was about entering and playing about in dream states, so we should expect a trick or two along the way.

Then, they came out of that dream and “tricked us” again by still being in a dream. Again, I was not surprised by the double bluff. When Watanabe’s character started talking about how he didn’t recognize the rug as his own, it became clear that they had attempted to trick him – and that the movie had attempted to trick us … but it was still not confusing.

From that point on, we actually saw them hooking up to their machines before every dream … and the wake-up’s were made really obvious too – especially when they were being “woke” from one level of dream to another, so it was really easy to keep track of where we were.

Not at a single point in the entire movie did I feel that I didn’t know whether I was watching dream or reality. It seemed to me that the makers had gone out of their way to keep the transitions between levels and realities very clear-cut in an attempt to keep the viewers up to speed.

So why then do even respected critics such as Mark Kermode rave about the confusion that is rife throughout Inception?

Is it just me? Or are a huge percentage of the people watching this movie just kinda stupid? I don’t understand how people are getting lost in a plot that contains only one real thread.

Did these people have the same problem following the plot of Toy Story 3?

“What? I thought Lotso was a good guy! I’m totally confused! I’m gonna have to watch this again!”

Don’t misunderstand the purpose of this post. I loved Inception. I found it to be beautifully shot and expertly written. It’s the overwhelming reaction to it that I am finding unbearable.

They talk about Inception being a “smart” blockbuster. I disagree. I think it’s more a case of the general public just being pretty stupid.

Posted in Media Hype
Tags: ,

This Just In …

•August 3, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Something that irritates the hell out of me is the tendency for news channels and websites to create stories or to over-dramatize meaningless everyday occurrences in an attempt to make themselves seem relevant.

The concept of rolling, 24 hour news is a good idea on paper. People are interested in world events. People do need to be aware and informed of events that affect their lives.

But it takes less than 20 minutes of watching any news channel or reading through the latest “breaking” news on any of these websites to realize that there is simply not enough actual news to fill the airtime and webspace devoted to it.

A classic example of this is the BBC’s “News24” channel – that seems to show the same 20 minute VT of “headlines” on a loop from dawn till dusk every day … punctuated with the odd weather report and a film crew out on the street asking passers by whether they think the war in Iraq is a good thing or a bad thing.

When did the opinion of people on the street make the leap to being News?
Is it just me that really couldn’t care less what random people strolling down Oxford Street think about the Government’s policy on Immigration?

As a by-product of this lazy time wasting, these news channels have become a soapbox for the uneducated, bigoted and outright racist element of society to voice their twisted opinions … and the egos of the channels in question assume that these views are those of “the general public“. And with the move from “text us your opinion, at a cost of 10p per go” to “tweet your comment to us, free” we are now getting more and more of these brainless opinions than ever.

What worries me is that the people watching this may not see it for what it is.

Since this constant coverage began, the lines separating News from Opinion and Everyday Occurrence have become incredibly blurred.

A recent example from the Yahoo News headlines is the “News” that Kanye West is following someone on Twitter.

That is the entire story.

It is accompanied by an example of the calibre of Tweets this fan puts out and the 10-sentence article is topped off with the “news” that the random nobody Kanye has decided to follow has made no comment on the matter.

Really?
Is this Newsworthy?
Is this the kind of thing that people actually visit news sites to read?

I sincerely doubt it. I think it is the perfect example of the depths to which these sites (and channels) will sink in order to just put SOMETHING out, to make updates and report “breaking news” every few minutes despite the banality or the insignificance of the content.

There was a time when a slow news day was something remarkable – an unusual occurrence where a local newspaper shows itself up by reporting a cat stuck in a tree on it’s front page. But now, we are bombarded with this useless “information muzak“.

We shouldn’t have to sift through this garbage to find the one or two real news stories of the day and I find it offensive that the news companies assume we are all interested in this bland, mind-numbing, transparent filler. I long for a site that cuts through the crap and just delivers the real news, but even respected companies like the BBC and CNN have fallen into this information overload pit and it’s driving me insane!

Posted in Media Hype, Web
Tags: , , ,

iPhone Losing Out To Android!

•August 3, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Seriously, people should really pay more attention to me 🙂

An entire month after I switched to Android and started telling people that the platform would kick the iPhone off it’s pedistal …
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/02/neilsen_smartphone_stats/

Usually my predictions take a lot longer to come true, but it seems that Apple’s rushed approach to the release of the iPhone4 and their subsequent awful handling of it’s bugs, accompanied by the rumoured 2nd generation iPad release less than 12 months after the 1st gen appeared on the market, has knocked some sense into at least some of their followers.

Is Apple finally diminishing in the eyes of the “fanboys” from it’s God-like status to being viewed merely as a company that produces gadgets??

Are people finally realizing that Samsung, LG and even Dell are producing handsets that kick the iPhone’s arse to an embarassing extent??

The mobile phone and tablet device market is at a tipping point and we should all be making an effort to push it toward the open source platforms. The time will never be better than right now.

Posted in Consumer, Media Hype

Mini-Rant: [Enter Password]

•July 26, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Passwords. Everywhere you look, fucking passwords.

I can see the logic in needing a secure login protocol for any website that holds your personal details but I am becoming increasingly pissed off with the amount of times I have to go through the “retrieve password” procedure on so many of these damn sites.

The biggest offenders are the sites that simply don’t allow you to set a password you have ANY chance of remembering. Yes, random collections of characters are definitely super safe! So fucking safe, not even the account holders can login!

Fair enough, the password won’t be guessed by criminals simply trolling these sites like the proverbial hooded teenagers trying the doors on locked cars … but the so-called “Strong” password is JUST as likely to be cracked by software as your first pet or your mother’s maiden name!

These sites try to make themselves seem locked up tighter than Fort Knox by irritating the shit out of people every time they try to login.

“Well, I guess if I can’t even login when I KNOW my password, what chance do the hackers have?”

If only that were how it worked!

It’s going to give me great pleasure to call up the customer service people for these websites in the future and be required to inform them that my new password is “CUNTFACE!” – all caps, all one word.

And if they do require a “password hint“, I shall ask the brainless Call Centre moron to make it their own name. At least I’ll know which tosser to ask for next time their shitty site locks me out.

Posted in General Misery, Web

The Rotten Apple In The Pile

•July 26, 2010 • Leave a Comment

The birth of the iPhone4 and all of the attention that has surrounded it really should have served to show much of the general public that Apple is not the all-powerful, ever-trustworthy, loved-up company they would like you to believe they are. However, this is not the case. Every Apple apologist out there is still just as adamant that the company is all about the customer, producing the best products on the market and continues to spout that those that think otherwise are idiots.

The thing is, this is simply not true.

Apple are the best in the business at one thing … and one thing alone. Making their weaknesses seem insignificant. Frankly, they’re brilliant at bullshitting. It is astonishing when you consider just how far the Apple fans will go to stick up for this company that has produced inferior product after inferior product for years.

You can tell people that there are countless mp3 players on the market that are significantly superior to the iPod … and can be bought for just half the price … but they will still respond the same way.

“But it’s not an iPod.”

The same is true for just about every Apple product, but none moreso than the iPhone.

You can inform these people of faster CPU performance, larger storage capacity, the ability to expand storage space, higher specifications in camera quality, huge capacity for customization, more supported video formats, larger screen size, better screen resolution, better battery life, better reception … But it’s no use.

“It’s not an iPhone.”

It’s nothing less than brainwashing.

I have found that one way to get through to these people is to show them that their loyalty is misplaced. Apple are not concerned about the user experience of their customers. Apple are not concerned about making their products value for money. Apple are just like any other company – they want to make money. Period.

Why do you think the iPad does not have a camera?

This is one of the largest gripes for iPad users. How could Apple not realize that they would want, no, NEED a camera on their shiney new device? It makes no sense!

Well, actually it makes perfect sense. It’s exactly they same reason that the original iPhone had a pitifully low spec camera. It is so that when the new version of the iPad comes out … and it DOES have a camera, people will have to dip into their pockets once again to upgrade.

They are counting on the fact that, having bought the inferior 1st generation iPad, you will eventually realize that what you really NEED is the NEW iPad with the new features and the increased street-cred.

Because after all, that’s what Apple is all about. Nobody buys an Apple product because it’s superior to everything else on the market, or because it’s groundbreaking, or even because it’s useful … People buy Apple products to impress the people around them. Of course, it works – because those around them are just as brainwashed as them. Following the Apple brand like sheep anywhere it cares to take them.

I have bought Apple products in the past. I know what it’s like to be drinking the cool-aid. And of course, once you have these devices, you’d seem like the perfect fool to admit they are lacking in any way! Especially given their over-exaggerated prices for what they are.

But the biggest blot on Apple’s reputation has to be the dishonest way in which the recent iPhone issues have been handled.

An extremely ineteresting, yet practically unmentioned, piece of analysis recently revealed that after much public proclaiming that the iPhone4’s reception issues were due to a shocking mistake in the formula by which the signal is calculated in the phone’s code, the “fix” deployed by Apple makes NO CHANGES to the way the signal is interpreted whatsoever.

The “fix” merely tells the handset to display the signal strength across a greater number of “bars” than before.

This in no way improves the iPhone4’s reception. It makes no changes at all to the phone’s protocol stack – the element of the code which controls how well the handset performs in all conditions … from full signal to changing between cells to changing between 2G and 3G … to areas of low coverage.

Basically, if this were a car and 1st gear happened to be broken, the equivalent “fix” would be to send everyone a new gearstick knob which simply relabels the gears and pretends the old “1st” position is no longer even there!

The issue is still there – as the recent press conference confirmed.

It is incredible to me that after seeing their phones lose all signal when picking them up, people can listen to Apple, via Steve Jobs himself, tell them that they are holding their phone the wrong way and be completely happy with that explanation!

Newsflash, Steve! Giving out dodgy bits of rubber to everyone that bought your phone in order for them to be able to make phone calls is not a magnanimous gesture. It’s an admission of guilt. Yes, we all heard your apology and it seemed about as genuine as any apology from a millionaire that just watched countless people buy his latest product despite it’s many flaws could be!

Equally unbelievable is the way that Apple has gone out of their way in an attempt to find handsets from other manufacturers that exhibit the same “bug”. What no one seems to realize here is that demonstrating that other handsets lose signal if you wrap your hands around them has absolutely no relevance in this issue!

The iPhone4 loses signal if the user touches it in the wrong place. This is widely believed to be due to a grounding effect caused by the tiny electrical charge in the user’s body, affecting the performace of the antenna.

Wrapping your hand around a Nokia or a BlackBerry and watching the bars drop is a completely different scenario. In this instance, the hands completely enveloping the handset are blocking the signal received by the antenna. Not to mention that this is a completely unnatural way to hold your phone – unlike the “grip of death” required to render the iPhone4 useless!

Going back to the car analogy, this would be like having an issue where a car’s airbag is set off by turning the radio on … and the manufacturer showing that it’s a problem in all cars by smacking the shit out of a competitor’s car with a baseball bat until it’s airbag deployed!

Again, it seems that Apple are using their powers of bullshitting in an attempt to get out of another tight corner. No doubt, this will work for them as it has in the past. I can only hope that, each time they have to cover up such an error, a few more people will throw the cool-aid away and see some sense.

Posted in Consumer, Media Hype
Tags: , , , ,

Mini-Rant: Hair Dryers

•July 14, 2010 • 1 Comment

Just taking a brief moment to wonder why your normal, every day hair dryer makes so much damn noise!

In this age of technological wizardry, we have been given a plethora of amazing inventions and innovations.

Handheld gadgets that can access information literally from the other side of the planet!
Fans that have no blades!
Lamps that switch on and off when you wave your hand over them, or even when you clap your hands!
Robots that can be programmed to build incredibly complex machines …

And of course, the melon baller!

So why is it that we can’t make a single hair dryer that doesn’t make enough noise to drown out the entire London Symphony Orchestra? It’s just a heating element and a fan for fuck’s sake! I don’t even know how the parts involved can possibly make as much noise as they do!

It’s another of those great unsolved mysteries of the universe! … Right along with how so many men manage to resist the urge to cut the plugs off their spouse’s dryer after having the thing blasting out at them at 7am every day of their fucking lives.

It’s hard to believe that they’re loud simply because they’re made from the cheapest parts possible. I’ve seen the prices of these evil machines. Unless they’re making a 100,000% profit on every sale, there is DEFINITELY scope for improvement! Or maybe the people in the hair dryer industry are in the middle of some fiendish plot to deafen every woman alive as they hold these things to their head for 20 minutes every morning.

Either way, surely something has to be done! Before we are all driven insane!

Posted in Consumer, General Misery, People Skills

Unnecessary Products

•July 7, 2010 • Leave a Comment

There are very few things that annoy me more than the invention of completely unneeded products and the subsequent constant insistance from their makers that we just cannot live without them.

Disinfectants that kill ALL KNOWN GERMS.

Why? No one has ever come to any real harm from touching a few household germs! In fact, it is a widely held belief in the scientific community that the over-sterilization of a child’s living environment is actually detremental to it’s health.

The lack of dirt and germs in the child’s life leads to a severely weakened immune system and leaves then susceptible to all manner of illnesses as they grow older.

And while I’m on the subject of babies … What the hell is with this special “toddler’s milk” that’s being sold as yet another thing without which your child won’t live past the age of 3?

“Contains special bacteria that make your child’s belly healthy?”

Bullshit! It’s just exactly the same as these crappy little tubs of yoghurt we’re told will regulate the pH and the bacteria in our own stomachs … Aren’t these the very same bacteria that all of the disinfectants are killing 100% of?

What? These are friendly bacteria? Are you shitting me?

And while I’m on the subject of milk …!

Have you seen these adverts for special milk for you CAT?
What, cats need special milk now? The regular milk that us inferior humans drink every day just isn’t good enough for the precious cats any more?

It’s all just so much bollocks!

As I’ve found myself on the subject of cats, I feel the need to point out that, for many hundreds of years, people kept dogs and cats as pets without ONCE having to go out and buy a specially balanced, nutritionally controlled can of pet food, specifically designed for the purpose! But now, we’re told that it’s tantamount to abuse if we don’t use these pet foods that are scientifically proven to make you dog happier, or to make it’s coat more glossy, or to stop it’s teeth falling out …

I know people that have many pets of different kinds and feed them regular food without any of the implied ill effects of not buying these overpriced tins of foulness. And it costs a damn sight less than the prices people charge for the pet food.

While us normal people go down to the local chippy and get a chicken kebab made from the nastiest chicken leftovers the industry has to offer, the precious cats are being fed “only the best cuts of chicken” in their gourmet meals that go for £3 a pop!

It just seems incredible to me that almost nobody sees through these blatant false economies. None of these products are necessary. But it’s not even as if they are the kind of things that people make a conscious decision to buy, knowing they’re not necessary. They are being told that the products ARE needed … and are just too gullible to question them.

I couldn’t care less if you decide that you want to waste hundreds of pounds a month on these kinds of product. What irritates me is the thought of these companies thriving on the stupidity of the general public.

When you see these adverts, think about what they’re actually telling you and never assume that they are regulated in any way which would force them to tell you the truth!

Posted in Consumer, General Misery
Tags: , , , ,

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