Beyond the Book

Have you ever been swayed by the appeal/cleverness of an ad for one particular brand to switch from another that you generally used?

Years ago I had a stove with old-fashioned coiled eyes. It worked fine, but it sure did get dirty and discolored as time went by. The look of the thing annoyed me so I spent time scrubbing and trying to clean it up. It was hard work, and I was never really pleased with it.

One night my husband and I accidently found one of those infomercials that used to come on TV. They probably still do, but I don’t ever watch them. Anyway, the program was advertising a stove cleaner. They sprayed their product into a dirty oven, and just like that the grime melted off and could be wiped away with a cloth. They also demonstrated how great the product worked on the metal rings and pan underneath the coiled stove eyes. 

This method of cleaning looked a lot easier than what I’d been doing so I wrote down the phone number and called to place my order. Of course it was eventually time to try it. To my shock the baked on debris didn’t just wipe off. You had to use a LOT of elbow grease. I wasn’t crushed by this failure, but I was disappointed. 

So what did I learn about believing all the claims made by advertisements? Take them with a grain of salt, and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. I did change my dish washing liquid after watching a commercial, and it does work well, but the dish still doesn’t wash itself. 

I’m older now, and it’s hard for an ad to sway me into changing from a product that I like. I mainly pay attention to ads for things I’m looking to buy.  How about you? Are you a pushover for advertisements?