Monday, February 11, 2008

Taxing times

My daily drive to work takes me past many a strip mall, enough that I barely notice them anymore. But there's one that does catch the eye.

There's a company with an office there who do tax returns. It's now tax time in the US so what more natural, it seems to have occurred to the manager, than to have two guys standing outside advertising to the passing horde. Ordinarily I might not have noticed even that much but for the fact that one is costumed as Abraham Lincoln, complete with stovepipe hat and beard. The other? He gets to parade before us in a green costume, done up to look like the Statue of Liberty. Poor bastard even has a torch to wave at us as we drive by. And wave it he does!

Being a cynical old bastard it occurs to me to wonder how effective this is. Do people really drive down Tatum Boulevard, see Abraham Lincoln and Liberty and think 'oh, I *must* take my tax returns to those people!'???

I suppose, in a way, it's working, inasmuch as I've noticed and am now writing about it. But do I have the slightest idea which company it is? Do I care? And will I take my taxes to them? Not on your life!

3 comments:

Guy Ellis said...

I had noticed Lady Liberty (does that classify as a drag queen if a man is dressed as her?) but not Lincoln. On the times that I've been past perhaps Lincoln has been on a bath room break.

By the way, the ruse worked for me. I threw my tax papers out the window of the car at them.

Ann ODyne said...

You are not part of the demographic target, which is - losers who frequent strip-malls.
Yesterday there was a fire in a large Sydney mall and apparently shoppers were reluctant to cease shopping and flee.
Gene pool would have been cleaned up I think.

Rob said...

Ann, yeah, I read about that and couldn't believe it. (I'm a Melbourne boy meself even if I do live in the US nowadays).