Are the Republicans using subliminal advertising? ‘The Republican National

Committee’s prescription-drug

advertisement flashes the word

“rats,” a fragment of the word

“bureaucrats,” for one-thirtieth of

a second, in huge white

capital letters, larger than any

other word on the commercial.

The advertisement continues, “The Gore prescription plan:

bureaucrats decide.” The man

who produced the ad for the RNC

denied responsibility. It was

“purely accidental,” he said. “We

don’t play ball that way. I’m

not that clever.” Other admakers

said it would be “virtually

impossible” for the placement of

the frame to be accidental.’ New York Times via Slate

Another pricing glitch at Amazon, this time more egregious. DVD boxed sets were mistakenly priced at enormous discounts — some >75% off list. When Amazon discovered their mistake, they asked customers to pay the higher price or cancel their orders. “This is the last time I will do business with Amazon. There are too many other places online that don’t pull stunts like that,” was one (representative??) customer response. Amazon had similar difficulties last month in its toy store, which led to complaints to the FTC and the Better Business Bureau about what some construed as deceptive advertising and unfair treatment. Then there’s the “price-testing” debacle of last week, also in the DVD store. Lo! how the mighty have fallen — Amazon’s fate as the online retailer the public loves to hate seems sealed.CNET