One of the articles in my feeds a while ago (yes, back in November. Apparently I have a ‘backlog’), reminded my of yet another pet hate of mine – the marketing stickers and logos found on almost every piece of (usually techie) equipment in department stores.
What ever happened to researching your next big purchase via books, reviews and on-line forums?
I’m not sure which came first – the consumer’s lack of knowledge, or the big shiny “look what I can do” logos – but this dumbing-down is getting worse.
I first really noticed it when the “HD Ready” logos started appearing on flat panel TVs. I’m planning a whole other rant about the ins and outs of HD TV, resolutions and connections, so I’ll leave the major details until then. But this logo just caused more ignorance and lead folk to purchase expensive equipment that would soon be below-par for the use they had intended it for.
For a TV to be “HD Ready”, it had to have at least 720 horizontal lines of resolution in a wide screen ratio (1280 x 720). Yet the sticker was placed on “480 panel” (848 x 480) Plasma TVs and wide screen LCDs with resolutions like 1024 x 768 (NOT wide screen, so the pixels are stretched). Now, because of consumer’s blind trust, they have TV sets that will take an HD Signal, but not display the full detail of a proper HD picture, not even a mid-range 720p picture! And in the case of the saps with the 480 panels – they are viewing resolution LESS than that of UK Standard Definition.
Anyway, I’m straying here.
We’re now at the stage where people just do not bother researching anything about what they are about to buy. You’d think that buying that expensive something your family are going to use to view nearly all their entertainment with – and spend (unfortunately) most of their free time in front of – would cause a person to at least have a quick glance on-line as to what they might want. But no. Instead they expect to walk into a shop at 13:00 and, governed by the stickers and the (lack of) knowledge by Mr Salesman, be out of there with a shiney new ‘does-everything’ TV, DVD player, Hi-Fi etc by 13:30!
Some of these stickers seem to be aimed at the Super-Dumb range of shoppers too. Those with the “the more stickers the better” mentality. These stickers don’t even offer any useful info, but instead just state the obvious. Such as;
Fake logos created with LogoMaker
What? That LCD TV has an LCD Panel, Red, Green and Blue Pixels, and a Standby Light? NO. Really? Wow!
This all makes me wonder where it will go next. Where will the idiocy spill over? Can I expect to walk into a car dealership soon and see these staring me in the face?;
Sad, isn’t it?
Yet this progression of ineptitude will not cease unless the manufacturers, (or even just the stores, where the manufacturers haven’t etched the logos on), put a halt on their logo-lust. Force buyers to delve into the how’s why’s of that new purchase. Make the floor staff read up on what they’re selling. And Dixons – Stop copying and pasting those useless little info tags, cos it’s obvious you nearly always forget to edit the pasted info!
So next time you feel yourself being drawn towards the promise of “dynamic contrast ratio“, that new “Super-hyper true-motion chip” or “intelligent picture control” because of those precious little stickers… Run. Run for your lives!
