Weird phone call of the day

[kimberkit]

Setting: dinnertime in the Kim-and-Neil household.

Ring ring!
Me to Neil: Grrr. Probably a parent. Can you pick up?

Neil, picking up the phone: (pausing) Okay, can I ask what this is about?

Neil hands the phone over to me, looking sheepish. Clearly caller hasn't passed a really good anti-annoyance check.

Me: Hello?

Caller: Hi, this is Tammi with the Dove Foundation. This call will only take 90 seconds of your time.

Me: (sighing internally) Okay.

Caller: Public surveys of parents and grandparents of children indicate that TV and movie ratings are becoming more lenient. What do you think?

Me: I'm not a parent. And I don't watch television.
(Note: except on DVD)

Caller: It doesn't matter. Hollywood controls most of the production for family feature films, and I'd like to know if you think that more funding should go towards movies that actual families can watch.

Me: I like dirty movies.

Caller: Well, but if you liked movies for families, don't you think more funding should go towards family feature films?

Me: What the heck do you mean, "family feature film"?

Caller: Such films as [no name movie] [no name movie] [no name movie]. These films were marketed directly to the public with no advertising money. Do you think I can call you back with your opinion at a later time?

So, apparently she wants me to fund unpopular movies that aren't good enough to have made Sundance (or I would've heard of them). Probably conservative movies.

Me: Um... no.

Click.

I am a "family feature film"'s worst nightmare. At least as they define "family." I mean, I liked Shrek and Cars and Toy Story and all sorts of violent family feature films.

Comments

[ultiville.livejournal.com]

I find that kinda creepy. I've never gotten a phone call so obviously interested in trying to push an agenda on me -- I'm sure most phone polls are funded by some interest or other, but at least the ones I've heard have been more subtle.

[osirusbrisbane.livejournal.com]

I had a weird pushy call for donations the other month, that every time I said "No, I don't want to donate $50 to your cause", he'd say, "Okay, I'll just put you down for the basic level donation of $25, is that okay?"

Nope. Not okay. My reaction to phone solicitations is generally the same as my reactions to spam -- even if I were considering your product, now that you've interrupted my day to give me a hard sell, I'm not doing what you want. If I want what you have to offer, I will now get it elsewhere instead.

[nescio17.livejournal.com]

I have the same thing for almost all phone solicitations. A notable exception is the Red Cross. "We have an urgent blood emergency. Would you like to donate blood again?"
"Um...sure. I'll walk in sometime later this week. What are the hours again?"
"[Hours]"

A week later, the phone rings. Red Cross again. Oh. Right. I was supposed to do something, wasn't I. After a month or so I'm finally overwhelmed with guilt and donate blood.

[simonbillenness.livejournal.com]

I always tell callers right away that we don't accept phone solicitations and we don't do phone surveys. Then I tell them specifically to take us off their call lists. That cuts down dramatically on the annoyance.

Now that we've moved to DC, we don't even have a land-line!

[kimberkit.livejournal.com]

hee :) I really should have a standard response like that. Thanks.

[drlynch.livejournal.com]

well, since my mother is by trade a pollster, i always participate in *legitimate* surveys. this is not a legitimate survey or there would have been set questions. this was a crazy organization:
http://www.dove.org/

[kimberkit.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I'll usually do Gallup surveys -- those aren't quite so annoying. But that's not the first Irritating Call that I've gotten, and I wish I knew how to say "no, go away" better. Neil's always so nice that I feel guilty hanging up on people after he's picked up ;)

And alas, the crazy organization appears to be well funded & profitable, for being a non-proft -- running expenses were $400K, and it had about $100K left over. For more bugging of people and stamping their logo on movies. Sigh.

[(Anonymous)]

Mind you, saying: "I like dirty movies" was priceless.