My eldest son and I listened to Car Talk on the way to pick up some dachshunds this morning. It is Spring pledge drive at NHPR.
These people are so uncomfortable with fundraising - and so bad at it - that I usually switch it off. Yet today we were minded to revel in their misery. The forced enthusiasm, the embarrassed appeals to guilt (the only sure-fire money-getter with that crew), the lame humor - ah, lovely. The missteps were best of all: Five people have pledged already this morning, and they know their contributions weren't enough, so c'mon, let's help them out!
I think it would be a hoot for conservatives to throw a party to listen to pledge week together.
I think that the worst is Public TV fundraising. At least NPR puts exerpts of some of their better stuff on (I'm partial to Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me. Of course, if you're a Bushie, then you won't like it.), but local fundraising on local public TV is abysmal.
ReplyDeleteWhy would I give money to a show that plays back and offers to send me a DVD of the "Best of the Doobie Brothers" or "Lawrence Welk"?
If it were me, I would put on a two-hour double of my best current show (say, Austin City Limits) and stop it in mid-first set and threaten to replace it with Lawrence Welk unless I got $100K in the next half-hour. I'd make it fun, but also make sure they knew I meant it.
I know I'd pay to see ACL and not see Welk.
That's a good strategy- people would be burning up the lines to get rid of poor Lawrence. If they could get permission from Fox News to simulcast the FNC broadcast, they could also then say "This is our new sponsor unless you send money now!" They'd be able to get rid of government funding completely with one campaign.
ReplyDeleteTo heck with a party, we need an NPR fund raising drinking game!
ReplyDeleteCan we back up and explain the dachshunds please?
ReplyDeleteSomeone in our family decided that what we really need in this house is a dog. This resulted in the finding of two dogs at the humane society in Laconia which had to stay together. We have two wire-haired dachshunds now, Merry and Pippin.
ReplyDeleteThe person who needed a dog was me with lots of support from all my boys. Sam was going to buy me a puppy! But we work all day. So two semi-trained dachshunds it is!
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I like them already, purely on the merit of their names.
ReplyDelete