Bad way to make a good argument

My local cable company (Comcast) runs ads every now and then against the stealing of cable service, and there are a couple of spots in rotation. I completely agree that stealing cable service is "theft", but they make one of their points in a pretty lame way.

They have one guy talking about how dealers of descramblers often keep lists of customers, which suggests that if you bought one, you're more likely to be a target. This part is still fair (and I hope effective). But then then have a onscreen graphic that shows the poverty of their argument:

---

On June 22, 1994, Kenneth Murdock of Hi-Tech Electronics (Taylor, Michigan) pleaded guilty to selling illegal cable decoders and may face up to 10 years in prison.

---

This was almost ten years ago, and even if this guy had been sentenced he'd probably out by now. This is just a very lame argument.

Generally speaking, I presume that people lead with their best arguments, and if those fall, the junior varsity arguments probably won't fare much better. If these guys are sending the message that the best they can do is a 10-year-old case, they're not going to scare many people.

Posted by Steve at November 11, 2003 09:12 PM | TrackBack