I’m starting today’s discussion with advertising. No, it’s not a science thing, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

My first question is, why do some advertisers think we’re so stupid that they have to produce such staggeringly dumb ads?

Like, I’m REALLLLY going to run out and buy a Kia because they have two black women staring daggers at each other over who paid less for their cars. Sure.

Does the world really need that sort of silly crap?

How about the whiny guy who’s obviously put out at having to care for his own children for an hour or so while his wife is out getting a little time to herself doing some shopping? (The JC Penney ad.) Like what Neanderthal dig did the writers pull that crap from? (My apologies to the Neanderthals.)

Does every state in the union have some ditzy blond or ditzy married couple selling cut-rate furniture using obviously home-made ads? In Colorado it was Jake Jabs (probably still is). It was Gary and Marcy Levine until they went belly-up. In Massachusetts it’s Bernie and Phyl’s. Stupidest ads in the world. They look like they cost about 2.5 cents to shoot (and probably the writers only got a half cent and no credit). And don’t get me started on the car dealers… who cares if it’s Toyotathon time again?

(On the other hand, the two guys who run Jordan’s furniture actually have some clever ads — there’s some THOUGHT that went into those ads — which is why we bought some furniture from them.)

But, I suppose that nobody ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of what sells in advertising.

Okay, now that that’s out of my system, let’s talk about what people want to know about astronomy.

I used to do a lot of public talks about astronomy — here, there, everywhere. Contrary to popular belief, most people didn’t ask me to give them horoscope readings after my lectures. That’s because the folks who attended these talks (at planetariums, science centers, etc.) were there because they already knew something about the subject and they knew it had nothing to do with some ancient superstition. These were folks who come from all walks of life, who are obviously interested in the universe around them. They’re lucky, because when you go out questing in the cosmos, you come back with some cool stuff. If you sit on the couch and let the universe come to you, you’re not gonna get much that’s cool.

So, what interests folks about the stars?

Black holes.

Supernovae.

The end of the universe as we know it.

How the universe got started.

Life on other planets.

What will happen when the planets line up in the sky (which happens frequently but never causes any problems).

I once had the chance to lecture right after John Dobson gave a public talk. John’s a feisty guy, and sometimes he gets off on a rant about cosmology, but he’s always got something pithy to say. John had a group of kids in front of him and he had them spellbound about cosmology. Using words they could understand, he kept their attention and engaged their minds.

So you see, it can be done. How many Kias would they sell if they only used their brains instead of letting the “creative staff” hook their gonads up to the computers and play with themselves?

CCPetersen