beat.co.nz

MAD comics used to have this great section comparing what the advertising said and what the actual experience of using a product was. They were hilarious, and I was reminded of them when I read about the Brit who was taken at gunpoint, fingerprinted and put on the national DNA database after someone mistook his MP3 player for a weapon. See Sideswipe.

I bet all the design, testing, ergonomics, software and hardware developing couldn’t have prepared them for that particular customer experience. I suppose the MP3 player could have been a taser, or a phaser, or a remote control for an explosive – if it was dark, and you were some distance away, and you had the eyesight of a beetroot…Whatever way you look at it, having your DNA on permanent record for listening to music on the way home is pretty tough. I wonder what song it was? Answers on the back of an email please…