LOL thats because the people who are watching the commercial probably arent as detail oriented as you, or they dont know anything about peppers, or planting, and possibly some may not know where peppers come from and even more possible all of the above :)
I notice things on commercials all the time, or things people say that dont make sense :) LOL your not alone with the wondering of why some people are a little on the slow side!!

"Oh, well, what should I expect from Madison Avenue and Hollywood?"

you'd be surprised how often "they wont know the difference" is thrown around...or not.

seen the people selling $20 worth of osmocote grass seed for "instant grass replacement" on TV? you can buy a huge bag of it for less than $20, much less a small zipbag of it.

...and wow, the number of people I've seen trying to grow "big" tomatoes in a tiny little aerogarden on their counter crowded further by setting up other plants beside it.

I've seen the commercial you're talking about and the first thing that popped into my head was "that's a hell of weird looking not-so-jalapeno".

Yeah, I caught that too, however mr fishy can't tell the peppers apart either, which is why I pick them all now.

Just one of many things that make me roll my eyes.

Good think we are so smart.

> "Oh, well, what should I expect from Madison Avenue
> and Hollywood?"

I expect that they will do an excellent job of marketing products like these. And I think for the most part they do, even in this example. But I also laughed at the commercial, mostly at the guy tenderly planting each seed.
I also wondered what qualities they were actually interested in with these peppers. Was it flavor and texture? Or was it really storage, transportation, and processing characteristics that made their list.

It is now refreshing to me to see a commercial that is just fair and imparts some message that is understandable. So many now are just junk and some do not even make sense to me. I like the ones that show some innovative thinking and also like the ones that have some comedy in them. Like the Pace ads where they seem to think that it is a sin of some sort that some guy gets his picante sauce from NEW YORK CITY!! And the one where he has a car alarm on his horse.
Just my .02
Bill P.

dangould

"Good think we are so Smart"

Now that was funny. Nice to start the New Year with a laugh.

Jim

Yeah, I yell at the TV a lot myself. I don't know if it's sadder to think that the advertizers see their viewers as ignorant or that so many viewers actually are.

I don't grow peppers so I don't know that much about them, but even I was thinking, "shouldn't you start peppers inside first?"

They're ignorant if their goal is to teach people how their peppers are grown. But I think they're pretty smart when it comes to selling their product. Tom

We're a niche audience. Most people out there don't know the difference between peppers outside of bells and "others".

The whole "suspension of reality" holds up. It was probably just easier to use the footage, it was bought stock footage, or the director knows about as much about peppers and the general audience it's intended for.

It's kinda like how everyone in all those sitcoms who live in NYC never lock their doors and people come in/out at will.

What makes me feel all superior and smug is when a gardening magazine mis-identifies a plant.:)) For instance, a picture of a daylily mis-labelled as an Asiatic lily, or vice versa. It happens more often than you might think!

> Oh, well, what should I expect from Madison Avenue and
> Hollywood?

On a semi related note, 99.999% of the time you see a Bald Eagle on tv or in a movie, you hear the sound of a Red Tailed Hawk calling

It is good thing that there are many smart gardeners like we see in this thread.But the truth is Ignorence is the mother of marketing for many marketers and buyers of merchandise.

"...It's kinda like how everyone in all those sitcoms who live in NYC never lock their doors and people come in/out at will..."

Or the fact that they have what is obviously a $3000+/mo apartment on a minimum wage salary.

I suppose it should be pointed out that "Madison Avenue" & other ad agencies target their advertising strategies very carefully, to the times & shows that attract their target (gullible) demographic. So if you find yourself watching too many "ignorant" commercials, it should perhaps be cause for self-reflection. ;-)

LOL, zeedman. Probably as loud as I ever have while at the computer.

Lots of people (maybe most) haven't a clue how veggies grow. Even my kids and DH who have lived around my gardening for years surprise me with their "ignorance". DH figured I could plant asparagus seeds and harvest asparagus a couple of months later, much like lettuce and broccoli. He gets his homegrown asparagus now....but it took a few years. My daughter thought marigolds were perennials "because every year they grow right here by the garage". Every year I planted them there because it was about the only thing that survives the harsh conditions next to the concrete. I've tried to be more creative after her observation, but nothing has done as well as the marigolds there. Of course, I regularly surprise my family with my ignorance in their areas of expertise, also.

While working with urban youth in a garden setting, a friend of mine was talking through how food gets to your table. He was trying to get the high schoolers to figure out how far most veggies are shipped. No one had a clue where any of their veggies were grown...except for one young man who volunteered that he thought they grew all the veggies behind the store (one of our local superstores along a major road) Turned out he had glimpsed the garden center and somehow thought that provided all the produce sold at the store! Kinda made us step back and reevaluate where to start in our teaching. And yet these same students amazed me with their vast knowledge about many other subjects.

Really good points, Naturegirl. The fact that so few really understand where our food comes from, and how it is grown, processed, and marketed, isn't just a shame... it's frightening. Because if you don't know where your food supply comes from, you won't know when it is being controlled or tampered with... and it _is_ being tampered with.

Tell your friend to keep up the good work. There are too many people out there whose definition of "food" is something that you buy in microwave-safe containers. Sometimes in our march forward into "progress", we are too quick to leave the knowledge of our forefathers behind... the next generation should become more involved in learning to feed themselves.