Interesting? Way To Advertise

Came across these two Sub-Ads which were part of a Main Ad for a firearm / firearm supply store. They mainly advertise reloading gear - projectiles, unprimed cases and factory ammo. Here are the two sub ads....

Sub Ad # 1:

Rebel does buy and trade
secondhand firearms, so bring
your old guns in. The worst we
can do is insult ya!

Sub Ad # 2:

Rebel is looking for a young staff member
- must have shooters license, be honest,
responsible & intelligent, be impervious to
listening to thousands of B-S hunting stories,
interested in a career in a sunset industry,
strong as an ox, arms like a gorilla & prepared
to work for peanuts - apply within!

I think they take this approach because...

1: People who want to sell or trade a firearm are like those wanting to sell or trade a car... they want top dollar for it so as to leave no room for the retail buyer to make any profit.

2: To stop people thinking that working in a Gun Shop would be the bee's knees, the duck's nuts and just darn right Cool and who would end up inviting all their unemployed looser mates to just hang around and scare off customers.

Whatever their reason, I got a chuckle out of the ads.

Michael Ross

One flaw -- the word 'impervious' should be replaced (I'm not sure what with, though).

It...

1) is key to the entire meaning of the ad, and...

2) is a word many in that audience might not know.

-- TW

TW,

Now that you mention it...

"be impervious to listening to thousands of B-S hunting stories" is wrong as it is.

Be impervious to thousands of BS hunting stories. Fine. But you cannot be impervious to listening. So maybe... be unmoved by listening to... or be unaffected by listening to...

Hmmm.

Michael Ross

Look it up. "Impervious to" is an idiom. It means "unable to be affected by".

Example given in my dictionary: "he worked, apparently impervious to the heat"

So when he says the person he is looking for "must . . . be impervious to listening to thousands of B-S stories" he is saying they "must be unable to be affected by listening to thousands of B-S stories". It fits.

It's a joke anyway, but he is saying that someone who can't be unaffected by listening to thousands of B-S stories probably won't like the job.

---- Hugh

It's not the wrong word because it means the wrong thing (definition).

It's wrong because it's at too high a reading/intelligence level (for the intended audience). The audience won't know what the word means in the first place.

-- TW

Originally Posted by -TW

It's not the wrong word because it means the wrong thing (definition).

It's wrong because it's at too high a reading/intelligence level (for the intended audience). The audience won't know what the word means in the first place.

-- TW

Gust Kuz wee shoot gunns, don't meen we'z dum!

Pete

TW,

"it's at too high a reading/intelligence level (for the intended audience)"

Be careful of imposing your prejudices onto other cultures.

Just because it goes Bang doesn't mean those who buy it are stoopid.

Granted, if you watch these guys shoot'n pigeons - http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...80610645157601 - (it's better than duck hunt'n and Nintendo) you might see an A Typical redneck stoopid person with a firearm (are airguns considered firearms in your juridiction... I don't think they are).

But down here, we generally don't have that because... shooting costs so much. More than stoopid people could be thought of as being able to afford.

E.g from a four page ad in the same magazine...

Remington: Cheapest firearm $865. The rest of the Remington Centerfires start at over $1,000.

Savage: Cheapest is $1,495.

Tikka: Cheapest is $970. Just one model, the rest start at over $1,000. $1,250 for a varminter, for eg.

Sako: Well, they make Tikka and Tikka is their Cheap version. So add a grand for the Sako starting prices.

Visit that same store and you won't find a shotgun under $1,000. W/ Brownings starting around the $2.5k mark.

Firearms are not available for next to nichts down here. KMart used to sell 'em like 20 years ago. But not any more. And with the Tough firearm laws down here, together with the high cost of the sport, it's not really something an unemployed person can get into at a whim.

Ain't no $150 firearms down here. Even airguns start at $300 and go up. With most around the $400 - $800 area. Some are over $2,500 - for an airgun.

Different culture down here, TW.

Michael Ross

Just realized... even If all those in the market were half breed neanderthals, the ad said he wanted the person to be Intelligent. What better way to sift the noobs than use a word that has more than two syllabs

But the word still sits wrong to me. Maybe better... "be impervious to hearing thousands of..." I think the No Rightness comes due to "to listening to" - the second "to" doesn't fit right with the word impervious before it.

Michael Ross

I'm not sure anyone who's intelligent is going to respond to ads like that. Especially the work for peanuts part -- unless unemployment is way higher than usual where you are.

Here, again, are the ads...

Rebel does buy and trade
secondhand firearms, so bring
your old guns in. The worst we
can do is insult ya!


Rebel is looking for a young staff member
- must have shooters license, be honest,
responsible & intelligent, be impervious to
listening to thousands of B-S hunting stories,
interested in a career in a sunset industry,
strong as an ox, arms like a gorilla & prepared
to work for peanuts - apply within!