I often have insomnia, and, because I love conspiracy theories even though I don’t believe in them, I used to occasionally listen to the radio show Coast to Coast AM. I always especially enjoyed their Halloween episode, when the show would be retitled Ghost to GhostAM. I remember they talked about “Shadow People” on one such episode that was cool. Everything on the show was so utter madness of course, but I wonder if most of the callers were playing pranks. (The time “Gordon Freeman” called in being a prime example.)
It’s actually a surprisingly common device you’ll see in all forms of marketing. It’s not a good idea. Generally, the best way to market your product, whatever it may be, is to differentiate it, not imitate what everybody else is doing.
Oh yes, the shadow people! Thanks for the reminder, I loved getting spooked out by them too 🙂 And yeah, maybe it was just that one host? I certainly hope so, because I agree with you that original programming has a lot more potential than the cookie cutter stuff.
I remember another bit about “psychic vampires”–that is, people who just suck the energy out of a group. Now, to me these are called “boring” people, but the caller and host both felt it was a much more mystical phenomenon. That sort of thing made for a very entertaining broadcast.
Yeah, I remember that one too! I agree that there’s nothing supernatural going on there. To me, the psychic vampires are the self-centered attention whores in a given social setting.
But then the advertisers get jittery and demand you become a clone.
Too true. There’s a lot of pressure in business to make the ‘safe’ choice. Like the old saying: “no one ever got fired for buying IBM”.
Oh yes, the shadow people! Thanks for the reminder, I loved getting spooked out by them too 🙂 And yeah, maybe it was just that one host? I certainly hope so, because I agree with you that original programming has a lot more potential than the cookie cutter stuff.
I remember another bit about “psychic vampires”–that is, people who just suck the energy out of a group. Now, to me these are called “boring” people, but the caller and host both felt it was a much more mystical phenomenon. That sort of thing made for a very entertaining broadcast.
Yeah, I remember that one too! I agree that there’s nothing supernatural going on there. To me, the psychic vampires are the self-centered attention whores in a given social setting.