Tuesday, February 8, 2011

E- Trade Baby "Get your shocked face on!"

Get your SHOCKED Face on!

One of my favorite add campaigns is the E- Trade Baby commercials.  In fact I never even knew what E-Trade was until I watched one of the baby commercials which then intrigued me into typing there business right into the google search bar and off I went.   I was also suprised to realize I had watched many other E- Trade commercials before the Baby adds and yet was never amused enought to pursue further research or even remember who the ommercial was for.  But for those of you who do not know what E- Trade is here is a brief description thanks to wikipedia.com: E- Trade is a company offering an online financial website with a multitude of services. The major business of which is an online discount stock brokerage service for self-directed investors. Investors can buy and sell securities such as stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, and exchange- traded funds throughout electronic trading platforms.  You can also perform these services by phone via E-Trade Mobile Pro. The company also offers banking and lending products such as checking and savings accounts, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and credit cards.

The E-Trade baby commercials are my favorite because they always make me laugh.  Beyond the laughter I sat and pondered what else these commercials made me do or even feel.  I then came to the conclusion that the baby makes me feel a sense of guilt.  When I refer to guilt I mean that I realized I dont know how to prepare for retirement, invest my money, or how to work the stock market.  I did not understand any of the aspects E-Trade offered.  I only knew I worked hard in order to save money to afford a basic lifestyle in which satisfies me as well as my Boxer! At first i tried to scapegoat thinking that I am only 23 years of age and retirement may be far in my future but soon i concluded life is happening and at a fast rate and in order to provide a stable future especially in this economy money management is a necessity.  Not only would becoming financially smart improve my life but also the economy.  I can become one less person with huge negative debt, bancrupt issues, and collections to business who need their money. In order to prevent this I had to learn what to do with my money because life happens and money may be there one second and gone another.  For example an illness or a unexpected car accident. 

 This baby knows more than me! But it's okay since he uses humor to engage this fact plus who doesn't like a cute talking baby!  The commercials usually view the baby giving advise or bragging about investments in which were successful for adults he advised. In fact one of the commercials features a man playing the lottery in hope to win a retirement fund but he loses and the baby says, "Oh let me guess you lost? Let me get my chocked face on."  This quote is ironic because Americans buy lottery tickets everyday in hopes to having a rescue from financial burden on one lucky ticket.  I myself can identify to this giulty pleasure, not on a regular basis but more then I am proud of admitting have I scratched that ticket and wished my college tuition was no longer my worries!  People with an average, below average, and even abover average income can relate to these E-Trade commercials.  People as well as companies go bankrupt all the time or lose their retirement or are in credit card debt but this Baby is smart enough to manage it all on E-Trade so why can't we as adults? My guillt of ignorance on my financial status lead to identification with the characters in the commercials and also lead to feeling of mortification because I want to improve my financial future as well as knowledge. This made me get my shocked face on because anything with numbers I hate!

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