Yes. Yes I am. I’m all about the cheap laugh and Shell Oil was happy to help me out in more ways than one. It starts out with driving home in the rain on fumes. I am relieved to see a shell logo appear on the horizon. What? tonight it isn’t Shell. One light burns out and I am left with a cheap joke about gas prices. So here we go. (full-sized image here)

As I pay almost $3/gal (sorry Europeans, I know you don’t get this joke) looking up at the sign saying “hell” I am struck by the thought “I need to drive a marketing person by this sign. They might see an honest advertisement for the first time in their lives.” After realizing I didn’t really feel like spending my weekend wiping up exploded brain chunks, I file the thought away and went back to getting some gas.

On the topic of truth in advertising, if you haven’t seen the movie Crazy People, I highly recommend it. Its a very funny movie about a Madison Avenue ad exec that is overcome by the desire to tell the truth and is put into a mental institution. It was also filmed in the town where I grew up.

My last thought on this is that my partner Ray saw this differently. While I was amused about the marketing issues involved, Ray saw it as a political comment (our perspectives certainly are a product of our lives! ;)). You should definitely read his entry. It is funny, interesting, and as always left me angered by the right-hand side of the political spectrum. Oh yeah, and he passed by a gas station where the premium was $3.15!!!