Failure to communicate

Poor understanding of second language can get you into trouble. Back in 2006 Berlitz had a humorous TV commercial (made in Norway) with the punchline Improve Your English. As shown above on YouTube, it has a German Coast Guard trainee get confused between the words sinking and thinking. I was introduced to it via another recent YouTube video by Rashid N. Kapadia.

The set for that Berlitz commercial looks plausible. There are two relay racks full of equipment at the far left, and a table with what looks like a large marine radio receiver (presumably tuned to a distress frequency like 2182kHz). But there is another copycat YouTube video which uses the sound track from the radio, but hilariously instead just has the equipment for a recording studio – some graphic equalizers, level meters, and a cassette tape deck.

There is a blog post about that and other Berlitz commercials at the Marketing Mixed blog titled “Sinking” about strategy.

Another similar YouTube video has the situation switched to a trainee from the Egyptian Coast Guard.  

Two funny TV commercials about presentations

Andy survives being casually dressed in this Mennen SpeedStick commercial. (In another a singer forgets the lyrics, so he does a cowbell solo).



Robin is described as Princess of the PowerPoint. Instead it looks like she got a 10-minute introductory course.

Two adjoining slices in her pie chart have barely distinguishable colors. Could you tell them apart without the dotted red line I added?

Her quarterly results bar chart used the unnecessary and confusing 3D option, which makes it hard to read. Tom Mucciolo has a detailed critique of this ad. 

Call your doctor if you have tremors or uncontrolled muscle movements

Before we give others advice, we should think about whether it makes any sense. Yesterday I saw a television commercial for a drug ending with an incredible warning. On MSN Health I found the following similar written one:

"....Stop using metoclopramide and call your doctor at once if you have tremors or uncontrolled muscle movements, fever, stiff muscles, confusion, sweating, fast or uneven heartbeats, rapid breathing, depressed mood, thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself, hallucinations, anxiety, agitation, seizure, or jaundice (yellowing of your skin or eyes)..."

How am I supposed to call my doctor if I’m already having tremors or uncontrolled muscle movements? If I was lucky enough to have an old phone with big buttons, then I might still be ok. But, if all I had was a cell phone I might be completely out of luck.

That warning reminded me of some that are posted on ladders.