mattbell

I like Sky Mall for its cross-sectional look into the assumed hidden desires of a wide variety of jet-setting consumers. My own desires and needs are so different from others' that it's interesting to wrap my brain around the question of "who actually buys some of this shit?" Presumably people do. Sky Mall is still in business and they undoubtedly do lots of market research. I will admit there are some very clever inventions in there that fill tight unrealized product niches... hopefully the inventors are getting something out of it. On the other hand, there are some things that I just can't figure out at all. It's as if the Sky Mall product designers just start throwing darts at a dartboard full of words to come up with ideas. eg: "Let's have a PICTURE FRAME that's also a HEATER. Brilliant!" In the tradition of regretsy and cakewrecks, maybe someone should start productwrecks.com.

I photographed the most ridiculous things I found. Prove me wrong. Show me I'm mistaken. Tell me you know someone who'd buy this.

--------

Corporate InspireBar(TM)

The Successories people have truly outdone themselves this time. Even people who get excited about a "Teamwork" kinetic sculpture featuring faceless corporate drones on a rowboat must be at least a little turned off by this... a 5 pound $95 chocolate bar imbued with every motivational word and slogan ever invented all crammed together with some horrendous clip art in the graphic design equivalent of a 50-car pileup. It's like some weird sort of corporate ritual magic... if we all eat this bar, we'll all become more focused, inspired, and goal-oriented.

( And a lot more... )
------------

This may be my longest post ever, at least as far as screen-inches is concerned.

If you'd prefer, browse the flickr set.