Hmmmm....... smells fishy

We received an invitiation in the mail the other day from an organization called "Television Preview", out of Hollywood California. The deal is we're suposed to go to the Delta Hotel downtown for a screening to "evaluate not-yet released television material that is being considered for nationwide broadcast". Sounds sort of innocent enough, no?

No is right. First off, the people at Television Preview better hope that their intended audience have never heard of the internet. Because a quick search of their business turns up result after result of what these fraudsters are really about. If you go on their site, they're all secretive about what really goes on at these previews. That's because the material you'll be screening is stuff that's so bad, it will never get to air in the first place.

What's the point? Advertising. They want you to evaluate the ads, nothing more. More specifically, they want to see if you are influenced by ads. I don't have a problem with being asked to evaluate advertising - just be honest about it. Don't make me go out in the middle of winter, crowd into a hotel conference room under false pretences to watch crapola on a 27" TV just so you can ask us our opinion about a couple cheesy ads. If this company were savvy, they would just post the ads they wanted evaluated on the ........ what was that thing called again...... oh yeah, the internet. That way, I could review them from the comfort of my own home.

So if you got one of these invitations in the mail, before you embarrass yourself and two other guests of your choosing (they come as a set of 4), take a pass. It's not what you think. If you're still curious, you still don't have to go - just read what this individual said will happen.