Uh ... I'm mentioning "Charlie," no, wait, I screwed that up ...

I always hear commercials that advertise their services or products and follow up the pitch with something like "Mention my name and take an extra 10% off!"or "Say [insert ridiculous word] and save 5 bucks!" My favorite is when they instruct you, the potential customer, to "Tell 'em [so and so] sent ya!" This is such a sneaky little marketing trick. How do you parlay your conversation with a saleperson, a total stranger, into "Crazy Al sent me" or "Twizzlesticks!" I mean, I can honestly tell you that I have never in my life saved money by repeating one of these silly lines. The humiliation factor is just way too high. It's so awkward for a normal, rational human being to just come out with this in the midst of a transaction. These companies must know that. They end up looking like great people who can't wait to help you save a little dough because they know that the vast majority of their market base would feel foolish bringing up the nonsense phrase or whatever. When those brave enough to actually capitalize on the discount call, I wonder if the companies get any of it on tape and have a good laugh over it since (a) the phrase is stupid and (b) there's the added bonus of the poor person's bashfulness in bringing it up.