Years ago I took advantage of a too-good-to-be-true offer that Rolling Stone Magazine had: A lifetime (!) subscription for $100. Being obsessed with music, and thinking that just staying on top of current ads alone would be worth the 100 bucks, I went for it.

The other day I studied my address label and I found the expiration date (!) to my life long subscription. Rolling Stone magazine decided that Fabian Geyrhalter’s lifetime subscription will come to a sad end on the 17th of December in 2055.

Thank you Rolling Stone, but can I sign up for an extra year or so?

A similarly strange experience with a brand occured the other night when I got Fast Food on my way home. Being mostly Vegetarian, I maybe eat Fast Food 5 times a year or so, but coming home late from the office I did not feel like cooking, so I stopped by Panda Express. After already feeling guilty, and quite unhappy about a not-so-great late night dinner experience, I was OK with eating that Fortune Cookie too. Might as well.

Here was the message, or may I call it ‘fortune’, from Panda Express to its customer:

Ouch. Brand police – where are you?