I get a lot of funny stuff sent to me by friends over the Internet. Some of the stuff is raunchy, but most of it is funny and harmless. I get a number of pictures and a handful of videos sent to me each week.
There's a new video roaming the Internet from the people at Anheuser-Busch depicting a modern day office staff having to contribute to a "swear jar" each time they cuss at the office. The money in the tip jar is going to go to a party featuring Bud Light beer.
Click on the link below to view it:
It's actually pretty clever and ingenious. The ad is a product of a new web site A-B started to show their "not ready for prime time" ads - Bud.TV. There are a number of very funny A-B commercials that have never made television because, well, they border on the far edge of what would be deemed as acceptable by the Federal Communications Commission.
Of course, European commercials go a lot further in pushing the decency and politically correct envelope as is shown in this commercial:
In any event, back to the Swear Jar ad - the ad has been such a rage among people that it's criss-crossing the Internet with lightning quick efficiency. That's got to do nothing but please the execs who handle A-B's advertising account, as well as pleasing the higher-ups at A-B.
The problem is - I've gotten it from EIGHT different people this week!!! As I say, "Enough already!"
Seriously, I do enjoy getting these things, but not from eight different directions. While it may be pleasing the people at A-B and their ad company that it's getting bounced all over the place, it's mildly pissing me off. Even with high speed capabilities, sometimes it takes 15 to 20 minutes to download these files - especially when I'm in hotels that have horrible high speed capabilities to begin with.
Unless it's something rather unique, I very rarely pass these along to friends, family or colleagues. I figure if they're making the rounds on the Internet, most of the people I know will get them much sooner than later.
One other thing that mildly pisses me off when these things are sent: Usually, the person who is passing it along to me is forwarding it from an e-mail they've received from someone else, who received it from someone else and forwarded it, who received it from someone else, etc., etc. In each forwarding of the e-mail, there are e-mail addresses attached. As those e-mails continue to go out and grow exponentially, more e-mail addresses are attached.
This allows "spammers" who may get a hold of a chain e-mail like this to have hundreds of current and working e-mail addresses. To combat this, if you like to forward jokes, pictures or videos to friends, do this:
First of all, highlight the prior e-mail addresses in the text portion of the forwarded e-mail and delete them. Then in the "To:" line on your e-mail out, put your e-mail address. That's right - send it to yourself again. But in order to shield your friend's and family's e-mail addresses, go to the "BCC:" box and enter the addresses of those you want to send it to.
"BCC" stands for "Blind Carbon Copy." The people listed on "Blind Carbon Copy" will also receive the message, but the people on the "To" and "CC" lists will not see the names of anyone on the Blind Carbon Copy list. It's a good practice to get into.
I don't mind getting the funny stuff people send me, but I do mind getting it over and over and over and over. But if you're going to keep sending me things, just hide my e-mail address, please.
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