Anyway, didn’t watch the SATC television shows. Didn’t see the first movie. But tonight, when a few friends wanted a girls’ night out, I agreed to see SATC 2. It was a LOOOONG movie. I am an antsy person. Ask my husband. He will tell you that watching movies with me is tortuous. I get up. I go to the bathroom. I make him pause all the time. I don’t like to sit in one place. Sometimes I fall asleep. Maybe it’s because I sit in front of this computer for hours and hours at a time, but I am almost incapable of sitting through a two-hour movie. But tonight I made it through the entire 146 minutes in that theater.

It was a pretty good movie. I knew the characters. (Is there anyone in the world who doesn’t know them?) I knew the back story. (I love reading Entertainment Weekly, which has — over the years — reported on the SATC trend ad nauseum.) I can honestly say I enjoyed the movie. But my biggest take away: there was too much product placement in the movie.

Again, maybe it’s because I write about advertising and marketing (among other things) for a living, but I kept being pulled out of the story by the very obvious-to-me placements. A Cuisinart coffeemaker wakes Carrie up one morning. She gives Big a gorgeous Rolex watch their anniversary. There’s a giant HP logo on Samantha’s monitor. The girls hold up Pringles cans on the private jet. And Carrie even SAYS the brand’s name! In another scene, Samantha finds her Hermes Birkin bag acting as a pivotal plot point. And screams the brand name out loud. In the middle of a market.

What’s my biggest problem with the placements? They were too and obvious to me. I understand why they are in there. The movie is going to make a ton of money. Lots of women are going to see it. Women admire and love the franchise and the characters. So of course marketers want to link their brands to the movie and the franchise. But people, people, we’re not idiots. We really don’t need to pan that long on the coffeemaker and the Cuisinart logo, do we? We get it, we get it. Carrie and Big own a Cuisinart, so we should go buy one, too. (And I have nothing against Cuisinart. I actually WANTED that model way before I saw the movie.)

I think there is a very fine line between integrated, integral product placement and pure huckstering. And to me, lots of what I saw fell into the second category. Still, the movie was really good. It was a whimsical way to spend a Friday night. Even if I did have a big problem with the Aiden/Carrie plot line. I won’t say any more since it’s a big-time spoiler…

How’s your weekend going? Stay safe, and stay healthy!

First, a little background: We own a Kenmore stainless steel refrigerator. It’s about eight years old, but it’s in nice condition. About a year ago it started running all the time. We have an extended warranty, so we called Sears to come out and take a look. Aside from the fact that they canceled on us twice (“There are people with no refrigerators; yours is working.”), when they finally got here the repair guy said it was the seals. He would order two new seals and, once they came, we were to call and schedule someone to come. Which we did. More cancellations since, by this time, it was mid-summer. The guy finally came, installed the seals, and left. They weren’t good, though, so the unit still ran. Uggg. Another guy came a few weeks later. He spent an hour in my kitchen with a blow dryer saying the seals just needed to be stretched. When he left we decided the problem was lower priority than my husband’s medical issues, so we forgot about it. Until Monday.

I was sitting here messing around on Twitter when I saw it: @SearsHTS tweeting with someone else: @meags7827 Glad you connected with @SearsCares re: rebate. Hope all is well and thank you for letting us earn your business! Cc @MySears

Whoa! A problem-solver right there online? I immediately tweeted my own repair issues: @SearsHTS Hi, need help here. Fridge runs and runs. Repair came. Seal is bad. Replaced. THAT one is bad.

I got this response: @NaturalasPosMom Pls DM me your contact info and we can help you.

I did, and almost instantly my phone started ringing. I spent about ten minutes on the phone with a very nice marketing person, who made sure Sears called me first thing Tuesday morning. A few minutes later I saw another tweet from @SearsHTS: @NaturalasPosMom we really do care about our customers. Just contacted Sears Cares. Help is coming!

Today, we’re expecting a repair person who, they promise, will fix our running-all-the-time issue. I’ll let you know how that goes, but I have a lot of hope! (And someone to complain to if they don’t get it right!)

We don’t have a resolution to the second problem yet, but I think it’s worth mentioning. Last night, my husband ordered pizza from Domino’s. Three medium pies with different toppings and sauces. They arrived. Two out of the three were wrong. Completely wrong. Poor Chris! He called the store. The guy behind the counter wanted to make up three new pies and send them over. By this time it was late. Chris asked if he could just get two free pies in his next order. It was too late and we needed to go to bed. No, the guy said. Pies then or never. After my great experience with Sears, I told Chris to tweet about it. He did and got almost an immediate response from @dominos: @cstealey so sorry to hear that. http://bit.ly/3vszZ will let you contact our customer care team. Please send us the details.

Wow! So cool! So satisfying! Almost as great as how, after tweeting @WholeFoods about the butcher guys at my local store not having a straight answer about air-chilled chicken, I was able to go into the store, ask my question, and get a great answer. @WholeFoods promised me, via tweet, they would communicate with the meat counter about air-chilled chicken. And they did.

The point of my stories: If you have a legitimate problem, companies are out there listening. The smart ones are making sure we get responses — even at 10:35 p.m. on a Tuesday night.

Have you used Twitter for customer service? How did it go? Would you ever try it? And hey, are you following me yet? You should be! I tweet about all things green and crunchy…