Archive for category Money and Marketing

Correlation vs. Causation

Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Money and Marketing on March 16th, 2011

There’s an important concept that I’d like to discuss with you: correlation vs. causation. Correlation means that two things happen together. Causation means that one thing causes another. When one thing causes another, they necessarily happen together, but the inverse is not true. Things that happen together aren’t always caused by each other. As simple as this concept sounds, it’s actually the root of a lot of misunderstanding of scientific results. Science is very good at establishing correlations. Cause is much harder to establish, and the difference is very relevant.

Take this headline, for example:

“Positive attitudes help heart patients live longer,” reads the headline, but if you look closely, that’s not actually what the study said. What it actually said was, “Those with a more optimistic outlook had a greater chance of survival.” That doesn’t mean that a positive attitude caused a longer life (causation); it simply means that an optimistic attitude and a greater chance of survival occurred together (correlation).

For example, what if there was a physiological trait that both increased longevity and resulted in a positive attitude. People who had that trait would live longer and be happier, but people who did not have that trait wouldn’t suddenly gain it by cultivating a positive attitude. In other words, just because some people who have positive attitudes also live longer doesn’t mean that the positive attitudes cause the increased longevity, or that shifting from a negative to a positive  attitude will increase longevity.

Correlation/causation errors are rife in popular reporting on scientific results, and I invite you to watch out for them.

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Retail Commentary Quickie #3

Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Money and Marketing on March 15th, 2011

If you were offered, “The Life You Want,” what kind of things would you imagine for yourself. I bet it would be all sorts of things. Bob Greene thinks that “The Life You Want” involves getting motivated. Motivated to do what?

Well, motivated to lose weight, of course! And then, finally, you can be happy. Yes, the message of this book is that the “Life you want” involves, first and foremost, getting off your fat ass and losing some weight. Seems kind of narrowly focused to me, especially considering how miserable dieting makes most people.

SEXISM ALERT! SEXISM ALERT! Anybody out there who is interested in challenging the idea that certain traits are inherent to certain genders, just keep moving. This book is not for you! Boys are WILD! They wear capes! They fight with swords! They are violent!

Yes, clearly. Perez Hilton, anyone?

Oh, goodie. Add in a little dash of, “Feminists are turning our boys into faggots,” just to spice up the shit sandwich. Yummy, yummy oppression! I agree with the last sentence, “boys need to be understood loved, challenged, and encouraged.” (So do girls, and so does everybody else.) I hope they can still get all of those things if they don’t fit your macho bullshit stereotype of what a male is.

And last, but not least, filed next to McDonald’s “100% beef burger,” under the category of, “What the hell were you making them with BEFORE:

Last I checked, all chicken breasts were 100% white meat, but I wouldn’t put it past McDonalds to figure out how to make a chicken breast that had some other kind of meat in it.

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Reality Has Jumped The Shark: Pre-wrapped Baking Potatoes

Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Money and Marketing on January 9th, 2011

This is a continuing post in a series titled, “Reality Has Jumped The Shark.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with the phrase, here’s the Wikipedia entry.

Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise. The phrase was originally used to denote the point in a television program‘s history where the plot spins off into absurd story lines or unlikely characterizations. The expression was popularized in 1985 by Jonathan M. Hein, who would later create the web site jumptheshark.com (which now redirects to TVGuide.com). Hein explained the concept as follows: “It’s a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on…it’s all downhill.

This post, I present to you pre-wrapped baking potatoes.

It’s not that hard to grow potatoes, but I understand that not everyone has the space or inclination. But seriously, people, if you can’t be bothered to wrap your own damn potato in tin foil, I honestly cannot help you. For bonus lulz, notice the preposterous superlatives slathered all over the thing. It is simultaneously, “US Number 1 Premium,” “Chophouse Prime,” and “Triple Washed.” Wow. All this time, I’ve been eating only double-washed potatoes. I NEVER KNEW WHAT I WAS MISSING!

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“Farm Fresh”? Not Really, Wal-Mart

Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Homesteading, Money and Marketing on November 10th, 2010

Seen at Wal-Mart:

The more I live in the country and raise my own food, the more I rankle at claims like the above. The milk you buy at Wal-Mart isn’t “country fresh.” In fact, it’s plain illegal to sell “country fresh” (raw) milk off the farm, and the FDA has recently been cracking down on traditional ways of getting milk in compliance with this law, such as labeling the milk as for animal consumption only, or selling cow-shares. More and more, if you want “farm fresh” milk without threat of fine or arrest, you’ll need to own a cow.

Likewise, if you have ever eaten a fresh-killed, heritage-breed chicken, you’ll understand that the claim that Wal-Mart’s chicken has “farm-fresh taste” is simply preposterous.

Calling a Purdue chicken “farm-fresh” isn’t “just marketing speak.” It’s a bald-faced lie. And Wal-Mart is hoping that you’re ignorant enough not to know the difference. And they’re probably right. Because you don’t have access to real farm-fresh chicken and milk, at least in part because big companies have helped draft the legislative and regulatory framework that sits between food producers and your table.

“Farm-fresh” has a meaning. It still exists out there somewhere, although it is increasingly under attack. It  is particularly insulting for industrial food producers like Borden and Mayfield and Purdue and Tyson to co-opt the language of the very food that they participated in denying you access to.

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Reality Has Jumped The Shark: Dots and Tic-tac-Toe

Posted by Joshua Bardwell in Money and Marketing on October 21st, 2010

This is a continuing post in a series titled, “Reality Has Jumped The Shark.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with the phrase, here’s the Wikipedia entry.

Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise. The phrase was originally used to denote the point in a television program‘s history where the plot spins off into absurd story lines or unlikely characterizations. The expression was popularized in 1985 by Jonathan M. Hein, who would later create the web site jumptheshark.com (which now redirects to TVGuide.com). Hein explained the concept as follows: “It’s a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on…it’s all downhill.

This post, I present to you pre-printed dots and tic-tac-toe boards.

I just really don’t know what I could say to express my dumbfounded bemusement at this product, which was for sale in Wal-Mart, which means that millions of people across America are plonking down a few dollars a piece on it. “Super Value Pack”? You know what a super value is? Grabbing any fucking piece of paper you have lying around your house and DRAWING A FUCKING TIC-TAC-TOE BOARD ON THE BACK OF IT. It’s like the easiest game in the world to set up. Look at the phone keypad if you forget how to do it.

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