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Letters: Yum! Brands and TV ads

Kai Ryssdal Jan 13, 2012

Kai Ryssdal: Our letters segment today starts where Rob Long just left off — the business of the future of television. I talked to Janice Suter yesterday about how advertisers can reach an increasingly digital younger generation.

Andrew Delong of Mooers Forks, N.Y., wrote in to say, look, we’re more clever than you think we are.

Andrew DeLong: We’re able to attach certain free programs to our browsers that block the advertisements but not the content. We also have this ability for tablets and smart phones. Basically, if advertisers want to get to my demographic, they really need to up their game. Even more so than what they think is working now.

We had David Novak, the CEO of Yum! Brands, on the program this week. Yum! owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. A global trifecta of fast food, we called it.

Liz Hoffmann from Fairfield, Conn., calls it something else.

Liz Hoffmann: For me, the more relevant and pressing title should have been “Yum! Brands — A global trifecta of poor health.” It’s the prevalence of those restaurants that help to cause obesity, heart disease and illness. With almost 34 percent of all U.S. adults obese, it’s not a laughing matter.

Finally, author William Poundstone and his book, “Are You Smart Enough to Work For Google?” After he had me answer hypothetical questions from Google’s notoriously difficult job interviews, he helped us write some of our own, like find the quickest path from the roof of one building to another.

Kyle Bozeman from Troy, Ala., gave it a shot.

Kyle Bozeman: I’d construct a very large slingshot out of available materials on the roof. Then I would estimate the draw length required to move 500 feet without moving too high or too low very carefully.

What could possibly go wrong? You can find our pretend job interview questions here, and send us your thoughts.

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