Press, Bloggers Fall For iPhone Cup Holder 'Joke'

netbuzz writes "An iPhone case with a built-in cup holder? The designers were looking for $25,000 to make it on the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo. One look at the contraption should have been enough to convince anyone that the thing was a joke, or a publicity stunt, but a number of mainstream press outlets (LA Times, UPI) and bloggers took the bait with little or no realization that that they might be on the wrong end of the hook. Today the Dutch marketing firm behind the effort acknowledged that it was 'a joke.'"

We have already seen lucicrous stuff, and it sells

[anubi]

How much stuff have we seen already - absolutely ludicrous - yet it sells?

I am sure you, like me, have seen lots of stuff advertised that could not possibly work as advertised, yet someone sells it, making a mint doing so.

My neighbor bought last year some miracle thing that cooled his whole house off the ice in his fridge. Yeh. Cooled by how much? .0001 degree kelvin? And how much heat did his fridge pump into his house to make the ice? Unsaid. But most people, being the sheeple they are, open their wallets for what the microphone man is hocking. Geez, its gotta be true -doesn't it? It was said through a microphone!

Much of what I have seen coming down the pike for the last few decades I considered a joke. Other people took it seriously. And made money.

Some people do indeed have the sales skill to sell ice to eskimos. I go through almost any store and know my marketing skills are useless. The store seems mostly stocked with utterly useless junk - but someone buys it.

So a real joke got mixed up with all this junk. Can you blame 'em for not distinguishing the real joke from the crap the marketing people push today?

other things people thought were "jokes"

[Anonymous Coward]

Other Things People Thought Were "Jokes"

1. a portable music player without wireless and less space than a nomad
2. an online store that holds all your credit card info so you can buy something with a single click
3. a messaging system that limits messages to 140 characters
4. a web site where you make public in all the personal info needed to stalk you, burglarize your house, or sink your career, including what you are doing and when and where you are doing it, plus who all your friends are
5. an encyclopedia that anyone can edit
6. a web site that sells coupons worth $40 for $20 and the store gets only $10
7. an online game where you pay real money for virtual things in the game or to give to your "friends"
8. a new personal computer where the software is only available from a single store and there is no porn
9. a self balancing scooter

okay, the last one is still a joke but nobody is perfect