Thinking about my obsolete old scanner, I am reminded of this current personal computer ad campaign. There is a person who doesn’t think they need a new computer for whatever reason – mine is fine, new computers are the same as my old one, whatever – and so they turn that person’s home into a ‘computer store.’

I hate this campaign for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the series of smug annoying douches who are converted by this idiotic rip off of those stupid ‘while you were out’ type shows. I noticed subtleties early on that made me suspicious. They had people with accents, possibly in other countries. They have people of various ethnic backgrounds. They are clearly trying to hit us at a subconscious level with the concept that their product appeals to people all over the world from all types of backgrounds, whatever. But it’s all done in such a way that we can all feel comfortable in our bling-oriented America.

What really gets to me now – in the most recent commercial in the campaign, they have started aging the machines. It is no longer ‘my old computer’ but ‘my 4 year old computer.’ In other words, if your computer is 4 years old it is a piece of crap and must be replaced. And the fact of the matter is that most people are just fine with an old machine. They don’t need a bunch of new bells and whistles or a touch screen to navigate facebook. Sure it is nice ot have a new machine regularly, but we can’t let the guy who makes the profit tell us when to upgrade. Otherwise we’d all be driving a new car every 6 months.