2 Great or maybe dumb radio spots

Start of December, car radio on – break in the music – for commercials. And these two ran back-to-back.

Spot #1 – “Ho Ho Ho.” Why is this man so happy?"...asks the voice over….and then he provides the response….”you’d be happy too, if you only worked one day a year"….somehow it did a segue-way to a “Santa Sale”.
Huh? Today we can all think of those who likely don’t see the fun in this lack of work concept commercial. Topically funny maybe, sensitive to the times? Horrid no – but a commercial is supposed to at the very least create an Ah-Ha. Not cause an 'ouch'.

Spot # 2 – A private community college, likely with some government funding for retraining runs this in the Toronto market…"Get Certified as a Licensed Auto Technician now…there is a shortage of……"
now I would’a gussed – jobs? BUT no, the commercial went on to claim – "a shortage of candidates for these high paying positions in a growth industry.”

Governments across the board tell us they’re going to make massive investments in “re-training”
TIP FOR FUTURE HAPPINESS - The next growth industry: “edu-macation”. Fortunes are about to be spent on the promise of a new future, for ‘wrongly skilled, previously valuable workers”.

“Quick – where do I get a license to open a Re-Skill Ya Centre?”

And just who is it that going to ‘have the call’ on what the courses and strategic direction of this retraining will be?

Today, Garth Turner in trying to express that ‘a certain thing is less than clear said - "I think it's obfuscation of reality" in reference to CREA’s new Weighted National Average For Sales on the MLS.

Reminds me of the first time a teacher told me to stop or she'd ostracize me. Huh?

Please Garth, if you’re trying to say CREA is “confusing things” say something like, “less than clear”, or maybe even, “they are reinventing reality” – but I think you “obfusticate” when you use words like: obfuscation, to explain what you think happened – to the, may we call it the New WNAPfSMLS ?

Now maybe I’m just upset, or maybe happy - about Garth’s admission in a recent Globe and Mail Article of December 13, 08 – How High Risk Mortgages Crept North.

Excerpt from Globe & Mail Dec 13, 08.
Shortly after the hearing, Mr. Turner said he was approached by Mr. Flaherty's parliamentary secretary, Diane Ablonczy, in the House of Commons.

"She came to my desk where I was computing away on my laptop," Mr. Turner said, recalling that she told him to "get onside."

In the end, no one raised a single question about the prospect of 40-year or zero-down mortgages. The bill sailed through the committee - including a vote of support from Mr. Turner.

"At the end of the day I sadly acquiesced," he said, adding that he regrets voting the way he did. "At the time it was politically difficult."

Thanks for that admission Garth. We got into this financial mess by wanting to be “on side” with the club. Me too. See there, now we’ve both admitted. Only I didn't hold a public office.