DP Tool Club 19/CD_ASCQ_19_010295.iso/vrac/rubyv39.zip/RUB39-12

Text File | 1994-11-26 | 4KB | 78 lines

Copyright (c) 1994

                           I'M RIGHT!

                      SEVENTH-INNING YAWN
           (one good pseudo-opinion deserves another)

      Like every red-blooded American boy, I followed baseball. I
followed it religiously until college, and even with days full of
exams, women, and childish pranks, I still kept track of my
Cubbies.
      It's funny, though--they're not playing baseball this year,
and I don't care. The grown men playing a kid's game aren't
heroes to me anymore. I don't want to be Ryne Sandberg when I
grow up, mostly because I've grown up and I don't mind being me.
      What do baseball players stand for now, anyway?  "Greed is
good"?  "You, too, can make lots of money and dump Clorox on
reporters"?  "When you make millions and have time on your hands,
drugs are easier to get"?
      I'm not sure baseball was ever invested with nobility, but
the misty mirror of time seems to reflect a past full of
hard-working, fan-conscious fellows with silly hats. These days,
baseball is about negotiations, shoe contracts, and union
politics.
      The sad part of the whole situation is realizing that,
without the idiot sheep-fans who support this ridiculous house of
high-priced cards, there'd be no baseball.
      Except in the sandlots and backyards, where it belongs.
                               END

Copyright 1994(c)

                          AND SO AM I!

             REALITY BITES: THE SELLING OF THE LAW
                         By Del Freeman

     They are officers of the Court, perhaps not so few, but
certainly proud. You see them on every channel, at all hours of the
day and night, pedaling their wares like so much pushcart fruit.
     In a series of same/same film snippets, the commercial copy
is virtually indistinguishable; the visuals interchangeable.
Each is wearing his courthouse suit. Each is standing on his record
of success. Each is offering a free consultation, and each looks
and sounds just like the next.
     While some pay good money for this cookie-cutter television
presentation, the more conservative among the legal profession
still refuse to dirty the hems of their judicial robes by stooping
to advertising more expansive than a sedate, learned senior
partner's contemplative pose in the telephone book. Those who are
availing themselves of the perfectly legal marketing opportunity
afforded by the small screen, contend it is merely good business.
Those who consider the practice demeaning and ignoble, discount
potential success, and point to the sameness of approach.
     But a new breed is emerging -- one that grasps advertising
finesse with both hands, wresting the rhetoric into cold, hard
cash.
     As simple as the elemental components of water, the two
factors that drive successful marketing and sales remain: a)
better; and b) different. With everyone presenting himself and his
firm as better, (i.e., longer-standing; more experienced; and
specialized), one attention-getting local practitioner is focusing
his efforts on being different, He's not doing it by riding an
elephant or giving away toasters, although his approach may be just
as bold.
     He's making a splash with straight talk, and leaving his
competitors all wet, with the simple opening statement, "Let's face
it... ultimately, it's about money."
     Truth in advertising.
     Amen.
     It's the economy, stupid. I expect to see one of the more
borderline barristers carrying a sign to that effect while riding
an elephant any time, now.
                              -30-

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