Today, ESK (That's Evil Side Kick) and I performed sociological experiments on humans.
We set up our booth for the "public day" of the trade show. We had our shiny brochures . . . and brightly colored information flashing . . . and crappy little pens that are a coral colored highlighter on one end and a black ink pen on the other . . . with our company logo in between.
The only reason the public comes to these things is for the free crap. In the 20 some odd years that they've had "public day" some of the companies really have gone for big time flash. And, others still go for a boring stack of photo-copies on an empty table. There were t-shirts, frisbees, thundersticks, cups and pens galore. There was even one company giving out condoms with their logo on them. (Funny story . . . a woman told her companion that she'd like a piece of candy or a mint .. . and her companion pointed to the brightly packages bits on the nearest table . . . and the woman picked up a handful and asked "is this candy free?" as she walked off with it. I only wish I'd seen her face when she popped a condom in her mouth expecting minty freshness.)
Back to our experiment. We would put out pens in our nifty, brightly colored (yeah, the public isn't to different than kids hopped up on X) holders. And immediately, the "public" would attack our table and take all the pens . . . often in handfuls. We'd let the pens run out, and the "public" would disappear . . . it was like we were a table in Harry Potter . . . appearing and disappearing at our will. We'd wait a few minutes . . . and then put out another handful of pens . . . and swoop! the flying monkeys would come back. It was amazing . . . except the part where these hopelessly greedy people were compared to my kind.
Anyway, we saw people leaving with 2 and 3 extra large bags chock full of crap that someone will clean out of their closets after they are dead.
Huh, I just thought of something . . . imagine someone went every year . . . and gathered up the freebie crap and stashed it in a closet. Voila! A perfect time capsule! And, a total waste of a life and closet space.
I actually peeled off my clothes and jumped in the shower the moment I got home. I had to wash that stink off me.
2 comments:
a lot of that ridiculous crap is actually very useful to one group of people - teachers!
You know . . . if someone came to my table and said "I'm a teacher, can I get several for my students" I wouldn't be able to pack it fast enough. But, 8 year olds who should have been in school and little ol' ladies don't need multiple highlighter pens or cheap coasters or cheap as all get out coozies with some obscure software company's logo on it.
And, I have a bad attitude for a monkey.
Post a Comment