That Just Does Not Make Sense

I have a habit that is both good and bad; I look at things from both sides, but if I decide the other person is just plain wrong, I get kind of indignant about it.

Yesterday I was at the store, me outside in the car doing the Waiting-In-the-Car-Husband thing, with Katie inside shopping, and I was looking at one of those Propane Exchange boxes. Here anyway, they have 20 pound propane tanks, and so you bring your old one back empty, pay $20, and get a new tank that is filled. So I was looking at that and it had the name of the company on it, Rhino Propane, and then its slogan...

"Its not just propane..."

I got thinking about that. What do you mean, "it is not just propane"? What the heck else is it?

It is not gasoline.
It is not kerosene.
It cannot be propane in a tank because without some way to contain it, it would be a gas leak and not propane.

After a few minutes of thought, I realized, "No you bumbling idiots, it really is "JUST PROPANE!"

But you see this a lot, people or corporations trying to convince us that something is more than it really is. Part of me wants to mess with the President of that company, and send him a letter asking him what do they mean, "it is not just propane". Maybe have one of my attorneys send the company a letter with a Truth in Advertising Lawsuit proposing that "no, it really is just propane". Part of me realizes it is just a very dumb slogan, but part of me wants to call the company out on being stupid.

My question is, am I the only one that sees this kind of nonsense and spends wayyyyyyyyyy too much time thinking about it?

I think this could be fun, have about 10 of us Permies send the company emails blasting them for their obviously stupid slogan, and calling them out on it.

Yes, it would be holding them to task because somehow, somewhere, in some corporate office over coffee and donuts, some people sat around a big office table and actually put time, and thought into their slogan and somehow came to a consensus that "its not just propane" would be a good one.

By the way...the companies that operate those propane exchange tanks are scamming the people that buy them.

They are called "20 pound tanks" for a reason, full they hold 20 pounds of liquid propane, but the exchange tank companies only fill their tanks to 15 pounds. So people pay full retail price of $23 for a 3/4 filled propane tank.

I seldom swap out my propane tanks at those locations. Here we have propane companies that weigh and fill your tanks as you wait, so you actually get 20 pounds of propane for $18. That is where the scam comes in. The exchange tank boxes means a consumer pays $5 more for a tank that is only 3/4 full. Most people do not know that, and just assume the tank is filled! It is a huge scam.

The only time I use the propane exchange boxes is when I have a propane tank that is out of date (tanks have to be recertified every 5 years). Then I will exchange an out-of-date tank, for a new tank that is in-date. I get shafted by 5 pounds, but I get a tank that can be refilled for a few years after that. Just check the date before you get a tank because the secondary scam that those companies employ, is sending out filled, out of service tanks.

I think this one got a lot of attention for being particularly idiotic. unclear ..and now, it sounds like they are trying to say 'they meant to do that'  Meth. We're On It

That's the thing isn't it...like your propane ad, too many of us just pick up on the catchy sound bite and don't give the meaning any thought and the ad folks get away with it

"Propane.  It a gas!" could be a catchy slogan,

but I'd hate to get flamed for it!  :)

Phil Gardener wrote:"Propane.  It a gas!" could be a catchy slogan,

but I'd hate to get flamed for it!  :)

That one smelled.

-CK

Travis: you are not the only one. I argue with a lot of advertising.
I was REALLY interested in your commentary on propane tank exchange in general, I didn't know that. I have never swapped tanks there, always took them to be filled, I'll have to remember that. THANK YOU!! :D


Phil Gardener: hahahah, I love it :)

I would assume the slogan simply means that the company does not ONLY do propane.

Skandi Rogers wrote:I would assume the slogan simply means that the company does not ONLY do propane.

The devil is in the details.  Apparently, as a fuel gas, they really *do* ONLY do propane.  But their slogan is meant to imply that in that tank of propane is "good times", "family gatherings", and turnkey convenience.   I'd cut them a little slack if their brand were associated with conservation efforts of the remaining Rhinocerotidae,----won't be much longer and they can strike the Sumatran subspecies from existence.  And truthfully, I don't know that they *aren't* involved in rhino conservation....depending on how deep and committed the "rhino conservation charity" indicated really is.

"Scientists call them Rhinocerotidae. There are several species, like White, Black, Javan or Sumtran.

Only one species, Blue Rhino, can be found solely in the United States and Puerto Rico.

That’s us! We’re America's #1 propane tank exchange brand. We fuel good times.

Maybe you’ve seen us on a display in front of a store. More than 50,000 retailers sell Blue Rhino.

Or perhaps you’ve seen us on a gas grill or fire pit. Millions of Americans trust Blue Rhino to fuel their propane appliances.

At Blue Rhino, we’re known for the care we put into every propane tank. We’re also synonymous with convenience – because when you need propane quick, there’s probably a Rhino nearby.

But we have to answer the question everybody asks. Where did the name come from?

Back in 1994, a man named Billy Prim saw a propane tank exchange business overseas. An entrepreneur at heart, he decided to start an exchange company back home.

Billy came up with the name during an African photo safari. He saw a rhino, and thought it looked like a propane tank. He added blue because it’s the color of a propane flame. The brand was born.

Today, Blue Rhino is a proud part of Ferrellgas,® a propane industry leader. You’ll even see the Blue Rhino brand on some unique outdoor living products.

We still love those rhinos, and we love grilling too! Blue Rhino sponsors Bowling for Rhinos, a rhino conservation charity. We also support Operation Barbecue Relief, a charity of competition chefs who grill for those affected by natural disasters.

Blue Rhino - It's not just propane!®"   -- https://bluerhino.com/about/about-blue-rhino

I always thought it meant something to do with customer service  or it is providing you some benefit other than just the item you are buying.

Aside from that I despise advertising and the supposed stupidity of the targeted audience.  I've hated tv advertising always, as a child I would scream at the ads on tv.

Have you seen the peloton exercise bike ads? They bug me beyond belief.

I get the slogan.

It's not just propane, it's summer, it's BBQ, it's family time and swimming and playing outside.

It also helped me set the house on fire but I suppose you can argue my negligent BBQing is the real problem there. ;)

Nope...I still do not see it.

If they were trying to mean good times, they should have had the slogan, "It is not just ABOUT propane." Nope, that is not what their slogan says.

If you think bad advertising slogans absolutely flattens my tractor tire, then you should see what bad grammar does. Oh doesn't that break my drawbar!

"It's not just propane"...how the heck was the public supposed to make the connection to good times with a propane tank?

I can see Monsanto's slogan now, "It's not just Roundup"...really, what is it?  Family gatherings at the hospital for chemo treatments...no it really is Round up, just like it really is just propane.

Ethyl mercaptan is added to propane so that you can smell a leak. So...
It really isn’t just propane.

Travis Johnson wrote:My question is, am I the only one that sees this kind of nonsense and spends wayyyyyyyyyy too much time thinking about it?

I spend a lot of time thinking about these sorts of things, but mostly just as a reliable source of self-amusement.  I do get moderately incensed about certain things of this ilk, but that too serves as a sort of self-amusement.

One example: walking by a freezer case at Wal-Mart (I'm sorry) a while back, I noticed bags of chicken wings that said in big, bold letters "Smoked* Chicken Wings," written in a quaint hand-lettered farmers-market-esque chalkboard style.  Following that asterisk, I learned that these were chicken wings to which "smoke flavor" had been added.  I was at first quite angry, because there is, to my mind, a clear linguistic and qualitative difference between something that has been smoked and something to which smoke flavor has been added, and because our corporate-bedfellow government is too lily-livered to stand up and disallow such blatant lies.  Then I despaired a bit, wondering how on earth as small-scale, conscientious food producers we can compete against such a stacked deck.  But then I turned that into motivation to better connect with my existing customers and develop relationships that subvert such tactics.  And finally I found myself amused at the obviously desperate attempts of corporate America (or wherever) to capitalize on something that it cannot understand and with which it cannot truly compete.

So, yeah, I think about such things a bit, too.

I always laugh at the labels "100% juice! With added ingredients"  um... what would the juice be besides juice before you added other ingredients?

Pearl Sutton wrote:I always laugh at the labels "100% juice! With added ingredients"  um... what would the juice be besides juice before you added other ingredients?

HA....Pearl..you make me laugh.  Juice products especially seem to be geared toward 100% untruthful advertising.  For instance, Naked Juices.  Main ingredient is apple juice so it can't really be called only Mango now can it?  It has mango in it but technically it is apple-mango. I was out of organic juice and needed to make some Chia breakfast pudding so I just grabbed some Minute Maid berry juice to hold me over.  Got home only to find out its 10% juice.