The Gadgets Page

I found this blog entry about misleading advertisements and it made me feel nostalgic.

• As Seen on TV: The 10 Most Laughably Misleading Ads | Cracked.com

I think my first love of gadgets came from watching television commercials like these. For example, the commercials for Miracle Blade have been on since I was a teenager. I love to watch how they cut on television.

I LOVE it when he starts hacking away at the table with the knife, cuts into a solid rock, the aluminum can, and even the sledge hammer. He then immediately goes back to cutting the tomato in thin, beautiful slices. Some of the best salesmanship is on infomercials. They really show their product very quickly and efficiently.

Just like this commercial, they used to cut through aluminum cans with the knives on the commercials they showed when I was a kid. The sight of cutting something that I would NEVER try cutting with a knife burned itself so much into my mind that I can still see it today.

It’s not like these knives are any better than the Henckels knives in my kitchen. They are just demonstrated in such a way that makes them look smooth and amazing.

I truly think that my love of gadgets came from the likes of Ron Popeil and other infomercial greats.

Via: AdFreak: Cracked’s 10 most laughably misleading ads

Okay, perhaps smackdown is a bit of a stretch when comparing what are perhaps the most milquetoast and genteel electronic devices ever made, but there is a battle of the heavyweights going on for control of the eBook buying public (all fifteen of them). The Sony Reader, weighting in at slightly less than an actual paperback, is the reigning champ, and the Amazon Kindle—bigger, heavier (at almost 11oz), and stronger—is the contender. It’s actually pretty easy to tell whose going to win, but the fight isn’t as one-sided as the recent press around the Kindle might make it seem.

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