Calling a Spade a Piece of Earth Moving Equipment

Disclosures: 1. I cannot remember the last time I spent money on a product or service due to its advertising impact (exclusive or marginal). 2. I am not most people in that I am brand agnostic. Most people must succumb to the constant barrage of advertising that surrounds them not unlike the captives that come to sympathize with their kidnapper during a long ordeal. This is perhaps the trick that large and small brands use in today's brand crowded marketplace to move their wares. If you really think hard you realize that 99.9 % of stuff sold on this planet is a commodity. There is a lot of it and it can be bought and sold at any time of day through multiple channels. So stand out in the insane crowd major corporations to small businesses spend serious change on making a smarter (or so they think) megaphone to yell the loudest. Be it by way of outdoor (ads that adorn variety of billboards to urinals) to print to airtime on radio and TV and the internet. Then there is the pop ups that adorn all manners of electronic interaction services from game consoles or game interfaces to the fast expanding social networking websites. The fact that people tend to use these nuggets of wisdom to influence their buying behavior must tell us one thing - either people are seriously affected in their duramatter or the corporations that peddle their goods are wasting good money. The truth most likely is somewhere in the middle - that is a safe way of saying no one really knows. Think of the cliches in modern advertising and you will see why I say what I say - 1. Zero to Sixty in 3 seconds - really? I mean unless I was buying the next fleet for the Indy 500 or Nascar 800 how does this gem of intelligence coerce me to do anything? 2. Kills 99.99% of germs - ahem - only those that you counted (or could count) you dolt. If this was true then how come all the kids in my child's class still take home the sniffling and occassional stomach bug every winter? Given all the moms that drive up to pick their ward are boasting your product like a prize catch in their car dashboard? 3. 64 acres of pristine beachfront - really? Am I going to stay at this resort or develop a golf course? I am not sure if hectares would make it more attractive to the next idiot walking off the street? 4. Blazing fast 89G - first it sounded like a new space capsule that would hurtle me out of this moronic rock - but wait its nothing as dramatic - its merely the local phone company's newest offering allowing uninterrupted wallet draining feature to yak away with my facebook friends of whom I now have 8,999 of them thanks in part to my 89G connections.. 5. Winner of 26 Dufus awards - substitute dufus with JD Powers or any other Powers that be - now you really need to buy this contraption since it is 24x7; peels on its own; makes coffee and also wipes your butt when you are done with using it....and now its only 9.99 for a limited time of 895 days. Oh and did we say its a limited edition (we are making north of just under a million)? Now I wonder if Caterpillar ads call a Spade a Spade?

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected. I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot. It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is. Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy. It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff? Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality. So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing? Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...

Brown Motion

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