Here’s a little experiment. The only way to capture this Craigslist ad was via a screencapture video. Sit back and enjoy the ride. (You’ll need QuickTime to see the movie. Sorry ’bout that.)
The best part (to me) is that the very last picture (the super-tiny one at the end) appears to actually have the supposedly-missing glass part on it.
Thanks for the submission, Andrea!
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As I was reading this the news was playing ‘Shout’. As I’m scrolling down, my television was chanting ‘A little bit louder now! A little bit louder now!’
If I wasn’t afraid of intelligent technology taking over the world before, I am now. Excuse me, I have to go make a tin-foil hat.
That’s funny, as I had the “Theme from Jaws” running through my head as it played.
Hey, doesn’t a dresser like that usually come with a glass top? What’s up with that?
It’s a shame that someone who knows enough about HTML to make this ad didn’t learn at least a little about graphic design and page layout along the way. Also, if they could spend the time to make this ad, they probably could have found the time to retake the photos.
Other than that, I love bridseye maple.
i got today off, and i cant read this thing. no gots quicktime…
Nor I. And I can’t install it on the work machine – they don’t trust us and don’t want us to have any fun.
I’ll still comment on the comments, though; work seems like it might be a bit slow today.
Sorry about that. It’s basically someone advertising a vanity badly; the poorly written and punctuated ad repeats over and over again with increasing font size each time.
And the pictures are of the vanity out on the driveway, reflecting images of trucks.
I’m totally watching this at home (Mac has QT). It sounds like it has a wonderfully riveting car-crash quality.
I take that back. I think it made me religious, because I kept muttering “Oh, holy Jesus” every time the font got bigger and BIGGER and BIGGER.
I love outside furniture pictures. Those trucks look pretty neat, and that garage door is fantastic. I wonder, are those are part of the complete set as well?
Once again, people are taking pictures of *indoor* items *outdoors*. I still don’t get it.
At least there aren’t any vacuum cleaners in the photos.
The only thing I can figure is lighting in their house is terrible for the camera they have. My camera was that crappy before I got a new one last year. Any photos I took in the house came out horribly dark and awful unless I had all the curtains open, every light blazing, and set the camera to “night” setting on a tripod, and even then the photos were usually orange. Did I mention it was a terrible camera?
Outside, at least, they’re getting the furniture item in natural lighting.
Now, if the furniture looks like it’s been outside for more than just the photo shoot….
No, the reason is they’ve already replaced the item inside their house and have no room for it anymore, so it’s been in their garage/back porch/shed/lawn for the past couple weeks, until their significant other finally said “For god’s christ, just sell the damn thing or trash it!”
Or something like that.
What’s up with the Walmart gift card offer?
It’s merely there as a razzle dazzle distraction. Sort of like this whole ad.
But as we all know, “objects in mirror may appear closer than they actually are”. I think they’re really trying to sell the trucks (they’re HUGE now!) and maybe you can use the handy dandy Walmart gift card.
I have a sudden urge to CONTACT THIS POSTER WITH SERVICES OR OTHER COMMERCIAL INTERESTS.
Hand this techno-Annie Leibovitz a copy of Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream because I’m a blob now and can’t open my canned goods.
All I see are trucks when apparently there’s a “vintage vanity” for sale there somewhere.
What THE…?’
I get the feeling that this person is trying to tell me something
,but I’m not sure what that something is.
I do know that I wouldn’t buy their vanity
,because it has a semicircle missing from the center.
I would have no place to set my many creams and lotions
,because it is incomplete and there is no glass to cover the center.
ARE YOU SURE YOU HAVE THE FEELING
,THAT YOU DON’T WANT TO BUY MY VANITY?
COLLEEN HAS CONTACTED ME WITH OTHER COMMERCIAL GOODS AND SERVICES
,THUS MY MONSTROUS TYPING HAS COME TO AN END!
Are those commas before the stanzas some sort of iambic pentameter rule I haven’t heard about? I LIKE it!!!!!
,I’m rambling now and my forum password still hasn’t come thru….*sigh*…
Perhaps.
But I think they are more probably a reflection of the interesting space-before-the-comma punctuation in the ad.
(I am embarrassed to confess how long it took me to work out what the “glass center piece” was. I kept assuming it was a badly written “glass centerpiece” and trying to figure out where it would go, since there was a big oval cut out out of the center of the vanity, and any “piece” would just fall through.)
Check your email. 😉
It’s there! Thanks Santa!
LISTEN TO ME. ALL OF YOU, LISTEN TO ME. IT HAS THE GLASS CENTER PIECE.
You crossed the streams! You’re never supposed to cross the streams Venkman! Hehe…
In Soviet Russia, streams cross YOU!
Are you the wonderful Sara who does the amazing website “It’s Lovely I’ll Take It/Lovely Listing”? I’m about to have a fangirl *squee* moment if so.
(In Soviet Russia, links behind people’s posting IDs click on you!)
SQUEEE! Ahem.
Yay! Hi Sara!
Ooo – it is her! Yippie!
I would love to buy your vanity for $59.99 or my best offer, but from the photo, it looks like it doesn’t have the glass center piece. I can’t buy it if it’s not complete.
By the way, is it OK if I contact you with services or other commercial interests?
KTHXBYE
HEY IF I YELL YOU WILL BE OVERCOME WITH DESIRE FOR THIS PIECE OF FURNITURE AND UNDOUBTEDLY CONTACT ME RIGHT?
Now I must have it since you’ve yelled at me in ever increasing volume. I am only sad that it doesn’t seem to have the glass center piece.
It’s like the “Crazy Larry” school of advertising. Have one slogan, yell it at top volume, then turn up the volume and repeat.
JcT, I’m wondering if you remember the “Hoffpauir-Schrader” car-lot commercials? “Hoffpauir-SchraderCrossFromTheAirportInBurnetWHATTAPLACE!”
Linux, no quicktime 🙁
I guess I’ll hang out in the forums today. Got the day off, but I’m not allowed to reinstall QT on my PC. It comes with too big a load of other stuff and makes my comp go boom. I believe, after all the time invested in clearing the junk off my machine, my husband would be justified in divorcing me if I reinstalled it.
I’m sitting here trying to figure out if the glass center piece is not the mirror but a piece of glass to set on the top of the vanity….also, why would they have a visitor counter on their ad?? and now my brain hurts…
and sure I’ll pay $60 for an ugly vanity and a $1000 gift card!
Meh. After downloading and installing QT and having the video fail to download despite having it followed by just under 10 minutes of UNinstalling the reams of crud Apple shoved onto my comp for QT (3 programs? Really?) I learned a valuable lesson. If you see QT mentioned, run like hell.
I absolutely agree. See my post elsewhere about QT and my machine and divorce. 8)
“Here’s a little experiment. The only way to capture this Craigslist ad was via a screencapture video. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
OK, I understand the experiment part, but I don’t understand why this was the “only way to capture this Craigslist ad”. Nothing in the ad was moving (apart from scrolling down) that I could see.
I hope you’re at least getting traffic revenue from Apple for this.
Anyway…
I imagine he probably “forgot” to put on the glass centrepiece becauseit has broken and now has a razor sharp edge that cuts in half any too eager to view themself closer in the mirror.
So it’s got to be worth the $59 just for that.
Wow, a lot of QT hatred in here. I guess another way could be Flash, but either way, it’s free, right?
Graham: Not hatred, just been there, got burned, had to remove it to get back to good operating condition. 8)
Or she could have stood back with her video camera and produced an MPEG or AVI file (extra points for Hi Def) which we could have downloaded and watched on our 52″ flat screens, which are probably available somewhere on CL if you don’t have one. Maybe someone is selling one for free somewhere. They may even have one with a 52′ screen which would be the ideal way to watch this video.
Just a few suggestions.
I couldn’t capture the entire screen, and I didn’t want to duplicate the HUGE FREAKING TEXT in the ad. I figured the only way to do it was to take a video of the act of scrolling down in the ad, as that would provide a simulation of the experience of scrolling down the ad to see the rest of it.
I actually did try exporting it to Flash but it didn’t work. I apologize for those of you who experienced problems with Quicktime. (That was the experiment, by the way — to see if Quicktime would work for folks.) I do not get any money from Apple for using Quicktime, nor am I promoting it (for those of you who are so cynical). I just thought it would be a good way to show the content of this ad.
Lesson learned, I guess.
In IE, View > Source, then copy the text and paste it. All the HTML tags are yours.
I didn’t know getting revenue from ads/traffic was necessarily cynical. I just figured since quite a few people who read this site probably just went and downloaded QT and installed it, you might’ve ended up with a bit of revenue that way, no?
I don’t have a problem with QT (though I do still have a dial-up connection, so it took a while to download), I just couldn’t see why it was necessary.
[continuing, since the edit box never finished loading]
Other browsers should have a similar way to get the source from the page, though it may vary a bit depending on your browser.
As far as being cynical, you have ads on your site, right? I don’t see the difference. If people are going to click through and download anyway, why not get some revenue from it if you can?
My point was that I didn’t want to take up that much screen real estate. If I copied & pasted the whole text, it would have taken up a huge amount of screen space. I thought this was a better way.
There’s a huge difference (to me) between “here’s ads you can ignore if you want to” (or can click on if you want to help support the site) and “here’s a piece of software you have to download and use to view the site, and I get money from that if you do”.
One is morally okay to me, since people are free to ignore the ads at will. The latter is morally repugnant, since it implies that in order to use the site at all, you have to use software that I get a kickback from.
Ignorable ads I’ll do. The second I won’t, because that’s just sleazy. I may be the last moral person left on the internet, but requiring someone to click a link to access content because I get paid money for doing so just isn’t something I will do.
“My point was that I didn’t want to take up that much screen real estate. If I copied & pasted the whole text, it would have taken up a huge amount of screen space.”
You’ve had huge CL ads before. Not trying to provoke you, just an observation. I didn’t see how this was so different.
“Ignorable ads I’ll do. The second I won’t, because that’s just sleazy. I may be the last moral person left on the internet, but requiring someone to click a link to access content because I get paid money for doing so just isn’t something I will do.”
Isn’t it the because that makes it sleazy? You’re going to have a QT video regardless, yes? People that want to see it have to click to access anyway, yes?
Let me put it another way: Is it sleazy to take a tax deduction when you give to charity? Are you doing it for the deduction, or is that just a side benefit (i.e., would you give to the charity either way)?
I understand why people like to base morality upon actions (it makes things less complicated), but motive is the real determining factor of morality, is it not? (e.g., is killing wrong? What about in self defense or defense of an innocent?)
Anyway, philosophical discussion aside, my apologies for offending you.
I’ve had really long ads that I’ve put behind a cut, yes. I tried doing this one that way but the text was so large that even one word was longer than the width of the main column and extended into the sidebar and looked horribly messy. So that was why I used a video, because I could contain it within the video.
“Isn’t it the because that makes it sleazy? You’re going to have a QT video regardless, yes? People that want to see it have to click to access anyway, yes?
Let me put it another way: Is it sleazy to take a tax deduction when you give to charity? Are you doing it for the deduction, or is that just a side benefit (i.e., would you give to the charity either way)?”
I’m going to have a QT video anyway, yes … and people have to click to access it, yes … which is EXACTLY why I *shouldn’t* (and *wouldn’t*, and didn’t) set it up so that I make money off of it!
If I went to a site and someone had posted something that said, “Hey, you need to use this piece of software to view this site,” and I figured out that the person was getting money from downloads of that software and not disclosing that, I’d be offended — and that’s not something I would do to my readers.
And to answer your second question: Yes, I would (and do) donate to the charity anyway.
My motive with this site is to entertain and amuse, not to make money. My motive for having Google Ads up and the donation button are simply to help defray hosting costs. I’ve already turned down offers to buy the site. Maybe that makes me the stupidest blogger on the internet, but it’s how I can live with myself.
I’m a fucking Pollyanna, I know.
OK, thanks for not getting upset. Obviously, I’m just an immoral sleaze.
Sorry I brought it up.
Just FYI, the “second question” (which was rhetorical, because I didn’t figure you would donate just to get the tax deduction) was to point out that it is the intent that determines whether it is “sleazy”; at which I see you’ve also managed to take offense and misconstrue my meaning.
Well, it has been fun (not referring to this argument). I wish you the best with your endeavours.
may i also suggest snagit? you can capture a scrolling web page. i use it @ work, and it’s pretty nifty. but regardless, thank you, drmk-you totally rock!
I will check this out as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
I will second the vote for snag-it, it works really well and no issues with downloading software or QT!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the quicktime version either. (My own submission – waaaah!)
I have the screencap in .swf form if someone can host an 8mb file.
I can — is this the version you sent to me?
Yes, or probably yes. It was screencapped via Jing. I had 2 versions, 1 small 1 large. This one is the large one. Shall I send to you again?
Golly, it seems the ad author forgot that once is enough or thinks folks’ short term memory doesn’t work.
I personally don’t mind QT though. >.>
Don’t mind me, going to get an aspirin…the ad screaming about the missing glass piece was a tad much in all caps and increasingly bigger font size. Oy!
I’m actually sort of afraid that, rather than getting bigger, the text was actually getting closer, and that when I wake up tomorrow, my knowledge of the vanity’s completeness will be reinforced by 50-foot letters outside my window.
Don’t blink!
Plus a GIANT, hulking vanity skulking outside of the window. Don’t underestimate the vanity.
ALL IS VANITY!
VANITY SMASH PUNY HUMANS!
Now I have visions of me shooing away a skulking vanity. “Go on, git! I don’t have your glass center piece. Shoo!”
My problem with Quicktime is that it comes bundled with iTunes and ONLY bundled with iTunes…you have no choice to have one and not the other. It is not available as a Firefox extension either.
That’s not fair, so I boycott both. Believe it or not, I’ve not had a single problem with my choice…until today. I will get over it. Back to the show…
Uh… It gave me a choice… Maybe it just liked me.
I have a Mac for home. It was always here.
For people who don’t want their computer infected with iTunes, but still want to see the vid, get Quicktime Alternative http://www.free-codecs.com/download/quicktime_alternative.htm
It works just fine for me, and my computer is as free from icky Apple products as possible.
Thanks for the alternative, SLizzy.
Yeah, thanks pink flamingo Slizzy, that worked! Whew, thought I was going to be up all night wondering what I had missed.
Fantastic! It was a fast download, it didn’t try to sneak all its friends into my computer and it worked seamlessly and flawlessly with FireFox.
Thanks much. 🙂
I was going to recommend the same thing. Glad I decided to scan down all the comments before posting.
I got that from MajorGeeks.com a few yrs ago and haven’t had a problem since. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants/needs to view Quicktime but doesn’t want the Apple bloatware.
I don’t know the reason, but this is going through my mind now:
HEAD ON. APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD. HEAD ON. APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD.
I was so confused at the reflection of the trucks. At first, I thought there was a substantial whole in the garage door. It took me a while to even see what they were trying to sell. Should I feel bad for laughing at it more than mocking it?
P.S. I thought this was a perfectly legitimate experiment. It’s a shame that not everyone could see it, but I don’t think anyone should bash you for it!
Bash the Great Dolly Llama Nun? No one did that. We expressed regret, perhaps, that our technology wasn’t up to her speed. That’s all.
This ad reminded me of the “where’s my big toe?” kind of stories. It was like listening to some horrible creature get closer and closer. I almost expected something to jump out at me at the bottom of the ad.
I used to be able to use internet explorer for plugins that fire fox doesn’t have. Once I got to internet explorer, I still had to use real player to get and watch the video. It only took a few extra minutes, though, so it’s okay.
Thanks – the “like listening to some horrible creature get closer and closer” part made me laugh out loud.
Wow and here I was naively thinking that everyone had QT. Guess it’s not a standard after all.
I appreciated the experiment, a blog can’t live very long repeating the same tricks month after month (as a business blog writer myself). Anyways, I’m going to devote tomorrow to repeating sentences in louder and louder increments. Teach a lesson to the Starbucks people who always mess up my order.
Well, perhaps not everyone could experience the post as I did, but I was laughing out loud, alone in my apartment, as I watched the post scroll slowly down, and the words repeated, bigger and BIGGER…until the final tiny photo of the completely intact piece. It was beautiful, really. Martin Scorsese’s got nothing on you, drmk.
After watching the video and reading all the comments, my only lingering thought is, “Are there REALLY people out there who still use dial-up?”
I don’t but it often depends on where one lives. Some of my friends live in more rural locations with dial up as their only viable way of getting ‘net access.
According to the Pew Institute 7% of Americans (as of October ’09) have dial up.
Did anyone notice that it was complete, except the glass, I guess he forgot to take photos of it…. Ahem
P.s. I found your blog through the Bloggers Choice Awards and I voted for you, if you would like to vote for my educational blog you can vote here;
http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/78212
Thanks 🙂
Martin
So glad I decided to drink the Kool-Aid!
hey folks,
flying visit as I’ve spent half the afternoon trying to convince my hubbys Chrome browser that we DO have QT installed and it should show me this ad. Dang thing keeps asking for a plugin, then telling me it can’t install it coz we already have QT……..well duh!
I’ve finally given up and installed Safari instead (which is quite happy to show it to me) and now have no time to join in with all the fun. Hopefully tomorrow will be a different matter.
2 questions:
1) Is it complete?
&
2) Does it have the glass center piece?