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December 31, 2002

New Media uberpundit Michael Wolff claims that “AOL’s fundamental business—which has always been a level or two down from the family-oriented opening screen—is dirty talk.”

So is it just me, or is it just a little weird that the music in the current Juno commercial, targeting AOL, is “Dueling Banjos”? I nearly fell off my chair.

Says Teresa: “Oh, that movie was a long time ago.” Okay, I’m old. [10:17 AM]

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Comments on New Media uberpundit:

Gary Farber ::: (view all by) ::: January 01, 2003, 12:41 AM:

I spent more than a year as a customer of Free Juno.

And no one has the time to listen to me explain how their service sucked, technically, responsively, and from any possible view of the customer. They sucked completely. They sucked to the end. They sucked ultimately. Their service sucked, their software sucked, their interface sucked, every aspect of contacting them sucked, including their phone service, which was utterly unreachable to mere peon customers, who sucked.

Need I say it, Juno sucked, in ever possible cateogry, from software to service to contactability.

I mention this, in case it's unclear to anyone, what I think of my year of service as a Juno customer.

Did I mention they sucked completely, and were completely unsatisfactory? I beg your pardon. Let me clarify that they sucked. Completely.

As, by the way, also did NetZero, and AOl. AOL, NetZero, and Juno, are all utterly unreliable scumbuckets, all of whom should be completely avoided in favor of any alternative, such as a local Internet Service Provider.

Um, I'm just saying.

Christopher Hatton ::: (view all by) ::: January 01, 2003, 01:23 AM:

Patrick, it's not just you. I laughed at the Dueling Banjos, too. There's another commercial - for what I can't recall - that has four guys about our age (maybe a little younger) out camping. Then you hear a banjo pluck out DB in the distance, and they load up their car and flee in terror. So the ad community does expect us to remember Deliverance, I'd say. Not sure anyone did (except me).

Yeah, I know I already emailed this to you. I didn't know you were gonna put the comments back in - about which calloo! callay! I chortle in my joy.

Avram ::: (view all by) ::: January 01, 2003, 05:28 AM:

I was just AIMing with Patrick about that commercial earlier. Or maybe talking with Seanan about it on the phone. Or both. The day's a big ol' happy-tinted blur, it is.

Awarded 'Car Most Able To Keep You From Being Sodomized By Hillbillies' by Car & Driver Magazine.

Jane Yolen ::: (view all by) ::: January 01, 2003, 07:21 AM:

I saw that car commercial, too, and did a big HUNH? Thinking, of course, that what I was thinking MUST be missing the point. And thinking, that if I had the right point of the commercial this time, I had to wonder what they were actually selling.

Jane

Kevin J. Maroney ::: (view all by) ::: January 04, 2003, 09:56 PM:

Gary: For most of the last few years, I used a free AOL account for my internet access. It was worth every penny, but just barely.