Sunday, 8 July 2012

Systemic Dishonesty.

I just reserved an item online from Argos, a major British retail chain. At the bottom of the cart it states:

‘As a valued customer, we don’t want you to miss out! (Note exclamation mark.) We will send you the latest deals, exclusive offers and competitions unless you tick the box below.’

Translation:

‘As somebody who has demonstrated their capacity to spend money, our commercial machine wants to bombard you with irritating junk e-mail, and will do so unless you’re bright enough to realise you have to check the box below.’

It’s the phrase ‘...we don’t want you to miss out’ that gets me – pretending they’re doing this for my sake. It’s one little example of the fundamental dishonesty permeating the bedrock of modern society.

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