Truth in Advertising
In communications, honesty is often touted as the most important ideal. Important in large part because of some of the dismal statistics given advertising with some leading industry experts noting only 14 percent of people trusting traditional ads*. Today I point to a worst case scenario in the kind of “false advertising” that contributes to such dismal statistics.
Allow me to paint the scene. We are driving East on Highway 80 in southern Wyoming. It is nothing but a sea of desert beige, random plateaus and a seeming infinite landscape polka-dotted only with the occasional herd of sheep. As we drive, our gas gauge dives closer and closer to the “E.” It is with 23 miles remaining in the tank, that we spot this roadside sign for Gas.
We exit the highway amid cheers of hallelujah. But as we round the feeder road we find that alas, it was only a sign. Long-since abandoned, the station remained as a kind of taunting joke that I’m sure the locals find hilarious. I imagine them scoffing the tourists and other passers by, with the same kind of humor that created the random art work of the plastic cowboy perched atop a nearby ancient scaffolding of some sort.
Perhaps in rural Wyoming (like there’s another kind of Wyoming) “plastic cowboy perched on tall flimsy structure” is well known code for “ha ha, no gas here.” Not being a rural Wyomingite, I guess I’m not the target audience for that joke.
Now, before you start thinking this sign looks rather primitive and from that we should have surmised it was not a “real” gas station…well, I guess you’ve never been to Wyoming.
Regardless, the message was lost on me. But because the road trip angels continue to smile on us, we stumbled upon a Conoco about 25 miles later. With exactly “0″ miles till empty, we coasted in on fumes, tanked, bought some Funions and continued on with about four hours to go until Denver.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the gas stations in Denver actually sell, um, gas. But I’m not going to assume anything.
*Source: www.socialnomics.net
[...] insanity. And that includes the mind numbing and lonely trek across Wyoming and all three of its gas stations. You know when you are on the road and you see those trucks packed with cages stacked on top of the [...]