VisorCentral.com - disney successfully avoids an impression of intelligence

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Posted by dick-richardson on 03-19-2002 02:32 AM:

disney successfully avoids an impression of intelligence

And tries to make my son dumber at the same time. This was on the back of his cereal box.

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Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by Techie2000 on 03-19-2002 02:35 AM:

That is stupid...

Posted by homer on 03-19-2002 02:58 AM:

Josh:

I would have assumed you would know better than to expose young children to the evil empire like that!

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Posted by dick-richardson on 03-19-2002 03:44 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
I would have assumed you would know better than to expose young children to the evil empire like that!

I try. Unfortunately, I cannot remove all exposure to idiocy or moral degradation. I am just going to have to teach him to think for himself.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by Rob on 03-19-2002 06:34 PM:

Dinsey is just conditioning children so they are ready to accept their marketing and packaging without question. For example:

You have Cinderella on DVD, and Snow White and Bambi on Video Cassette. You would like all three on DVD. The correct way to do
this is apparently to buy the SnowWhiteDVD/CinderellaVideo package, followed by the BambiDVD/CinderellaVideo package. And since you now have 2 Cinderella Videos, you of course need to balance it out by buying the ShowWhiteVideo/BambiVideo special edition package. Note that buying just the SnowWhite and Bambi DVDs individually is not an acceptable solution.

The real magic trick, of course, is Disney making money disappear from parents' wallets...

Posted by foo fighter on 03-19-2002 09:08 PM:

Ah..the Magic "monetary" kingdom at its best. Although, you have admire a corporate entity that can turn something as innocent as childhood fantasy into an evil marketing franchise. Mickey could sell vials of Crack at the gift shops, and people would buy it as long as it had the Disney logo on it.

I think my signature says it all...

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Posted by homer on 03-19-2002 09:38 PM:

foo:

Did you finally buy a mac?

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We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Posted by foo fighter on 03-19-2002 09:42 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
Did you finally buy a mac?

Well, close. I ordered the base model iMac G4..but I won't receive it until mid-late April.

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Posted by Madkins007 on 03-19-2002 10:10 PM:

They copied that trick straight out of an old magic trick book I have seen- and it is copied in many places. Pretty lame to begin with, even lamer when you realize that you can end on step 3.

Besides the fact that it is a flawed trick, this is EXACTLY the wrong kind of trick to teach children anyway- too many steps, not very impressive. Parents will say 'Neat" out of politeness, classmates will be very underwhelmed.

Out of the hundreds of great tricks kids this age can learn, it somehow figures they would go for one like this!

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Posted by PDAENVY on 03-19-2002 10:27 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Madkins007
... you can end on step 3.

??? HUH

It only takes one step. Flip the 2 outside spoons!

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Jeff

Posted by dick-richardson on 03-19-2002 11:47 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by PDAENVY
??? HUH

It only takes one step. Flip the 2 outside spoons!

I think that's what he meant. Step 3 is flipping the 2 outside spoons. That's what makes it incredibly stupid. When I first read it and saw they were trying to make it 4 steps, I assumed they meant the spoons had to be adjacent (which would only require 2 steps). Then I saw step 3 and had to scan and post it so all could hold disney in derision.

I want to know how many execs thought this was incredible.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by homer on 03-20-2002 01:33 AM:

Actually, this is an old bar trick. The 'trick' on the back of the cereal box is only half of it.

You start with 3 spoons (or, if in the bar, 3 beer glasses) and show the person you're betting out to get them facing the same way in 3 steps.

Then you flip one of the glasses around so it looks like the first step, but in reverse, and have the person next to you try the same thing. Most of the time, the person doesn't see that you've started with the opposite set up than he did.

You should only do this once...and typically after everyone's had a few beers, as someone usually figures it out the second time ;o)

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We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
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Posted by Rob on 03-20-2002 02:04 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
Actually, this is an old bar trick. The 'trick' on the back of the cereal box is only half of it.

You start with 3 spoons (or, if in the bar, 3 beer glasses) and show the person you're betting out to get them facing the same way in 3 steps.

Then you flip one of the glasses around so it looks like the first step, but in reverse, and have the person next to you try the same thing. Most of the time, the person doesn't see that you've started with the opposite set up than he did.

I think this only makes sense if you can only flip 2 adjacent spoons/glasses (not counting the outside 2 as adjacent)

You start with bPb -> flip first 2 -> Pbb -> flip last 2 -> PPP (all up)

Your drunken friend (let's call him 'Homer'

) starts with PbP, and there's no way to get to PPP unless you flip the outside two (which aren't 'adjacent')

Of course the really drunk folks at disney who put this on the back of a cereal box screwed up anyway, since there are either two steps (if you must flip adjacent spoons only) or one step (if you can flip the outside two).

Next question: How many disney execs does it take to change a lightbulb?

Posted by Madkins007 on 03-20-2002 06:13 PM:

When I mentioned 'step three', I was trying to remember what the steps were on the box. Goofed- sorry!

Obviously, you can do it by switching the two outside spoons to start with and you will end up with what you want. To compound the idiocy, in the illustrations, the 2nd position is bbP- flip the bb and you are done- but they take it another couple steps past that!

In the oldest instructions I can find, the rule was you flipped two spoons but they HAD to be adjacent. It also noted that there were 'bar bet' variations on the theme.

To make things really sneaky, you set up two sets of things bPb, bPb, then slide one set over to your 'buddy' across the table (not to your side, but to the opposite side of the table). From HIS viewpoint, it is now PbP, but you both started with the same setup! Have him follow along, and when his ends up 'upside down', offer your sympathy, pull them back to your side, reset and slide back.

This also works best with things that are not real obvious- butterknives work better than forks or spoons. Pens or pencils work real well. This helps keep the victim from seeing that he was bamboozeled quite so quickly!

You can use cups, coins, etc., but then you cannot do the 'slide across' trick. In this case, the books recommend that you set it up bPbPbP, then 'break' the set in half- keeping the bPb set yourself. There are some tricks you can use to appear to give the other guy the choice of which set to use if you want to go that far, but most people will not notice that the two sets are really different, or at least, won't think there is much of a reason for it to make a difference.

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!

Posted by Toby on 03-21-2002 01:52 PM:

How do you know it was Disney that chose that to go on the back of the box? It was more likely Kellogg's.

Posted by dick-richardson on 03-21-2002 02:44 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
How do you know it was Disney that chose that to go on the back of the box? It was more likely Kellogg's.

I chose to attack the party that had its mousey seal of approval on the trick. Kellogg's may been a better choice (the origin of the trick is unknown, but the box was definitely made by Kellogg's), but a less obvious one.

IIRC, disney has gotten into trouble before for their affiliations. At the very least, they should scrutinize what their name is being attached to. IOW, whose dumber: the idiot or the idiot who signs?

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by Madkins007 on 03-21-2002 03:33 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
How do you know it was Disney that chose that to go on the back of the box? It was more likely Kellogg's.

A.) Kellogs has certainly done their fair share of contributing to the mis-education of kids. Cereal boxes in general seem to be notorious for messed-up facts, erroneous trivia, and really dumb games.

B.) Even if Kellogs did 100% of this, I would bet someone at Disney had to OK it. I cannot imagine that Disney, of all companies, would let something like that go out under their name without oversight approvals.

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!

Posted by NeilMcD on 04-12-2002 08:37 PM:

while we're on the subject of bar games..

This is what you can do to drunk friends at a quiet (or semi-loud) bar:

Write the following grouping of words down on an index card.

I AM SOFA KING WE FAR DID

Find your mark (anything over 8 beers is preferred) and ask them to read the card aloud at the top of their voice.

I did this once with a !!sober!! co-worker thinking he would get the joke before he even started reading it.

Nope. He kept doing it for like 2 minutes over and over again until the boss came over and said "yes you are.. now go back to work. "

Posted by Keefer Lucas on 04-13-2002 12:54 PM:

Young America

Does Kelloggs have a theme park, and if not why? Or will Disney eventually buy out Kelloggs in yet another attempt to have a monopoly on all animated characters?

Meanwhile I am waiting for Disney to buy out the Humongous games division of INFOGRAMES to gain access to their wealth of popular cartoon characters (Freddie Fish, Spy Fox, Putt Putt) and their stable of programming talent (of which the Disney people have, apparently, none).

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