Imagine a brain, floating, disembodied. It survives,
despite having no connection to the world around it. Surely it must be
incredibly intelligent.
Okay, floating brains are pretty damned creepy. You
don't have to think about that anymore. Sorry I mentioned the idea in
the first place. This isn't Creepshow.
So imagine you're an advertising executive with this
assignment: create the packaging for a product that contains actual
sentient human intelligence for home consumption. You don't have any
say in the personality; that was created in the lab by a bunch of
supply-side economists. You've got to whip up a package that
accurately reflects what the boys in white coats made. Here's what you
find out by doing some research:
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It's smarter than you are. |
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It's really organized - give it a comment or a question
and it can recall or locate a relevant fact that it read about the subject
once upon a time. |
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The product comes with a can of compressed air, because
the brainpower inside uses a tremendous amount of air. |
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Even when you're discussing a topic about which you
consider yourself an expert (i.e., advertising), the intelligence in the
package is able to rephrase everything you say to make it seem like you're
a flaming idiot. |
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By the time you realize why you feel like an idiot, your
conversation is long since done and it's very unlikely that you'll be able
to speak again for months, even years. |
Given your
time researching the product, you create a package that captures the
airiness, the strange odor you detected after your discussions were at an
end, the firmness that belies an inner flaccidity, and even the inherent
pomposity of the personality that the boys in the lab used to manufacture
this artificial intelligence product. You add the pinkish hue as a
finishing touch, knowing that this color will enhance its ability to make
outrageous statements without having them challenged by anyone within
earshot until long after the conversation.
You bring your design ideas in to present to your client,
who likes them in theory. The packaging for the additional windbag
needs to be redesigned, but they like the coloring and the flaccid/firm
dichotomy. You go back to the drawing board and come up with a package
that earns you tremendous accolades.
The world over
learns about the product, which the boys in marketing brand based on focus
groups that were asked to supply names based on the picture at left.
The focus groups quickly embrace the inherent arrogance and pomposity vibes
they get off the pictures, and the name "Limbaugh" is used to capture those
qualities. Looking to the future, the give it a first name of "Rush"
because the consultants from the publishing world express concern over
trying to fit two long names on the cover of a paperback book. They
prefer a longer first name and shorter last name, but reach a compromise
when it's agreed that in most cases the last name may be dispensed with as
soon as the brand is established. Using your packaging, a sensation is
born!