One of the companies I worked for, their whole advertising gimmick was basically Native Advertising. The ads were formatted to look like that publication's news stories. There was a small banner at the top that said "Paid advertisement" but if you missed that, the rest of the ad read like a newspaper or magazine entry. Complete with interviews with people in the company or former government officials and the like. There would be of course a special offer for the readers of this paper at the end, making it seem far more personalized than it was. One felt a bit dirty sending things to the people who were duped into paying $20 for a State $2 bill that had a static sticker over it to make it look like it was some sort of official thing, and of course that was a subscription, so they'd get taken to the cleaner many more times...

Reminds me of the preachers on TV selling stuff via infomercial "special offers" to discover your lord and savior.

Special offer! Insanity CURED for a pittance ($27,437). Call me or me today. You have no pittance? Pity! No pittance! No pittance? No pity!!!!

Let me vent a tiny bit, not about politics, but about people in general.. I work in a Starbucks, but one in a Target store. I am trained by Starbucks, I serve Starbucks, and I have a Starbucks district manager who comes to check on my store at least once a month. But I am employed by Target, and Target is the store that sets the rules for *my* Starbucks.

Target Starbucks are usually not part of any of the Starbucks special offers. Target Starbucks was not part of this 'vote and we will give you a free coffee' thing. But people came by and asked if they get a free coffee from us. They argues with us. My team lead said we'd rather give them a free coffee and have people happy with us, than having them curse at us and go elsewhere to get their free coffee.

Yes, most people were nice this morning. They said 'Thank you so much!' and 'You are so nice!' when we gave them their coffee. But what gets me are the people who are NEVER happy! We say 'A free tall coffee', and they say 'Oh, I want the new gingerbread twist for free!' . They say 'Oh, I don't drink coffee, can I just get a hot chocolate instead?'

And we have to say 'sorry, no'. It isn't that we want to be mean to people! It isn't that we are not giving away free stuff, especially when we are not even part of the program. But coffee isn't that expensive, and we want to make people happy! But we can't be making free whatever drinks to everybody! Why are there so many people who still aren't happy? So many people who just want to argue with you and get a free special latte instead of a coffee?

Maybe you think I am being ridiculous, and overly sensitive. But I get so many people who think that *I* personally make the coffee cost so much that they think it is OK to scream at me when I just want to charge what my cash register is set to charge!

If you don't want to pay $1.65 for your regular cup of coffee, please feel free to go elsewhere. I am not setting the price myself. If you don't want to have a free cup of coffee today, always served with a smile, but want something fancier instead, please go somewhere else.

I am being as nice as I can, and I understand that you might have a bad day, but don't take it out on me! I am doing a great job! And then I go home at night and cry because people are mean.

Just go vote! It shouldn't be about a free coffee, and please be nice to your barista!

and remember, the US dollar is having a special offer right now: "buy one, get one free".

too much for my tastes. looks like a supermarket special offer or something.

put just *promote on the front, and VideoSift on the back, aiiiiiit?