Sunday, July 20, 2008

Fool's gold

One of the funniest things I saw on American TV on our last road trip was the commercial for Goldkit.com. They'll buy any scrap gold you have lying around for cash. You just apply for one of their Goldkit packages to be sent to you in the mail. Then you fill the special envelope with your scrap gold and mail it in. Within days you'll have your cheque! It's that easy. Their commercial had testimonials like "I turned in my scrap gold and had enough money to go on vacation!"

Do you know anyone who would trust the postal system to send their gold jewelry in the mail? I don't. I especially like how their statistics don't bear out much of a payout. "We've paid out millions to hundreds of thousands of people." OK, that sounds like the average payout is less than $100. Otherwise, you'd be saying "We've paid out tens (or hundreds) of millions to hundreds of thousands of people." Now, that sounds more impressive. I guess they aren't targeting people who can do simple math.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I rank this commercial with "Head ON!" Very annoying and if a mail thief wanted gold... well...keep an eye peeled for those very colorful envelopes. Kaching! Retro

ZooooM said...

Funny, because I see this commercial all the time and think "wow, people could just nab that out of the mail, especially since it's no secret what is in it."

I'll take my own junk to a pawn shop if I need $$ that bad, thanks.

You really should try and see the ShamWow ads. Those are astounding too, but for train wreck reasons.

Karl Plesz said...

Yeah, we have ShamWOW, even in Canada. It's become somewhat of a private joke in my sister's family, although I can't admit... err explain why. Wink wink, nudge nudge.