Category: USA

GEICO offends at the airport

The Government Employees Insurance Company, usually known by the acronym GEICO, is an American auto insurance company. GEICO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and, as of 2006, provided coverage for more than 10 million motor cars, trucks and other motor vehicles owned by more than 7 million policy holders. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in the District of Columbia and in all U.S. states except Massachusetts.

A caveman is a popular stylized characterization of how early humans or hominids may have looked and behaved. The term is sometimes used colloquially to refer to Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, or Homo sapiens of the Paleolithic era.

Röyksopp are a Norwegian electronic music duo from Tromsø formed in 1998. The duo consists of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland. Røyksopp is the Norwegian word for the class of mushrooms known as puffballs, but the band’s name substitutes ö for the second letter (in place of ø).

Cleaning up McDonald’s

In response to the backlash against McDonald’s, the firm has sought to include some healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: “Not bad for a McJob”. (The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X, has become a buzz word for low paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security). McDonald’s disputes the idea that its restaurant jobs have no prospects, noting that its CEO, Jim Skinner, started working at the company as a regular restaurant employee, and that 20 of its top 50 managers began work as regular crew members.

Bob Dylan’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret is a retailer of lingerie, women’s clothing and beauty products. It is a segment of specialty retail business, Limited Brands with an operating income of US$958 million in 2006. Victoria’s Secret is well known for its fashion shows and catalogues, which feature top fashion models.

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is a Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan’s most notable work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal documentarian and reluctant figurehead of American unrest. Some of his songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin'”, became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements.

Love Sick is a popular concert feature song, based around a simple, repeating organ riff. It was written and recorded for Bob Dylan’s acclaimed 1997 album Time Out of Mind.

Folgers is rich enough to be served in America’s gourmet coffee houses

Another famous [Folgers] advertising campaign from the early 1980s took the viewer inside various gourmet restaurants as a voice-over whispered, “We are here at (insert name of four-star restaurant), where we’ve secretly replaced the fine coffee they usually serve with Folgers Crystals. Let’s see if anyone can tell the difference!” Of course, no one ever did.

A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is “hidden” because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object. Hidden cameras have become popular for household surveillance, and can be built into common household objects such as smoke detectors, clock radios, motion detectors, ball caps, plants, and cellphones. Hidden cameras may also be used commercially or industrially as security cameras.

Levi’s Dacron Polyester Trip

[Levi Strauss & Co.] briefly experimented (in the 1970s) with employee ownership and a public stock listing, but remains owned and controlled by descendants and relatives of Levi Strauss’ four nephews.

Polyethylene terephthalate (aka PET, PETE or the obsolete PETP or PET-P) is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family that is produced by the chemical industry and is used in synthetic fibers; beverage, food and other liquid containers; thermoforming applications; and engineering resins often in combination with glass fiber. It is one of the most important raw materials used in man-made fibers. It is manufactured under trade names Arnite, Impet and Rynite, Ertalyte, Hostaphan, Melinex and Mylar films, and Dacron, Terylene & Trevira fibers.

A psychedelic experience, or trip, is characterized by the perception of aspects of one’s mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ordinary fetters. Psychedelic states are one of the stations on the spectrum of experiences elicited by sensory deprivation as well as by psychedelic substances. On that same spectrum will be found hallucinations, changes of perception, synesthesia, altered states of awareness, mystical states, and occasionally states resembling psychosis. The word psychedelic comes from a combination of two Greek words: psyche (ψυχή) and delos (δήλος). Literally, it means “mind manifesting”.

Enjoy Life, with Miller High Life

This beer was put on the market in 1903 and is Miller Brewing‘s oldest brand. Miller High Life can be considered the forerunner of the modern American lager beers. High Life is grouped under the pilsner category of beers, although it has slightly less alcohol than European pilsners, at 4.7% ABV. The prevailing slogan on current packaging is “The Champagne of Beers”, which is an adaptation of its long standing slogan “The Champagne of Bottled Beers”. It was originally available in miniature champagne bottles and was one of the premier high end beers in the country for many years.