>Is it the actual product or do you recall something else in the >commercial? Most people recall something in the commercial. Very well reasoned and informative post. I used to be in luxury sales (then in retail sales mgmt bringing up the numbers for difficult stores) before going to college as an adult, and since then worked for a while in Public Relations, even heading one effort, although my college studies were based on sciences. One of the things that people learn is that the very refusal that people have in terms of thinking that they or their attitudes can be influenced HELPS those who are trying to manipulate. People who know that advertising has effects are harder to sell, but those who figure "It's only an ad." are far easier to get to think your way and are easy-sells. "Just an ad" is a phrase the companies themselves use when they want to have an even greater bang for their buck. That down-play is a short-cut way to reduce discussion and reduce awareness of the sales game involved, making softer targets. It is so much the norm and has been promulgated so long and so well by companies that their very targets repeat it as if it were a truism while the opposite is the true effect. Remember that joke about diplomacy: "Diplomacy is the art of letting people have things your way." There is a public-education result of the "Daily Show" having a regular segment on ads. That marvelous show manages to get a decent bit of hilarious learning accomplished about news, assumptions, and manipulation. I have to also agree with the person who said that Verizon is not taking the responses of ferret people seriously, but I'd suggest two different or additional actions. Drop items you have from OTHER Verizon divisions, like their DSL service, and tell them why. Those divisions have no reason to have loyalty to a different division's ad campaign and they won't want negative spill-over. Doing this can stir the waters internally in Verizon since they bundle items and are divisions rather than separate companies. Meanwhile, let their competitors know that there are 7 million ferrets in U.S. families and that cute (positive) ferret ads would play very well when their competitor is actively driving people away with negative ads. I'd bet that right now Verizon's competitors would LOVE to buy subscriber lists and membership lists from ferret publications and major clubs for targeted direct mail. >Regardless of intent, we must focus on what advertisers are really >saying. And without our input, >they won't know the difference. BRAVO! >So far Parris has no symptoms of lymphoma, other than blood test results. MANY years ago vet and researcher, Susan Brown, postulated that certain blood test results MAY be indicative SPECIFICALLY of lymphoma/lymphosarcoma in ferrets. Her own research as well as that of others found that this is NOT the case. Those results can be produced by other things such as systemic infections as well. Certain blood test results mean that the next steps: trying to treat a possible infection, or pulling a node and sending it to a ferret-knowledgeable veterinary pathologist are needed. Hemolytic anemia is one of the not often seen but fatal complications of adrenal neoplasia and one of multiple reasons why surgery simply makes sense for the vast majority of such ferrets. Sukie For ferret health information: http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth (Ferret Health List) http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ (easy to search FHL Archives) http://geocities.com/sukieslist (in need of updating, links for health concerns) [Posted in FML issue 3881]