I often wonder if advertisers feel regret. After a seemingly successful project — the boss is pleased, the client has signed off, the filming is done — do the advertising jocks ever flip on the TV, see what they’ve wrought and feel shame for their work? I mean, look at this thing!
There’s no excuse for that amount of over-the-top enthusiasm for a shiny ball!
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching contact juggling on a street corner as much as the the next guy, but the impressive part is the juggler’s skill… not the friggin’ ball!
Thus proves the old marketing maxim: markets don’t exist, they’re created…still, I will point out the ball is unusually constructed. I have not escaped the need of my children to purchase one of those “super balls” with the liquid inside with different combinations of stuff (some look like an oil slick, others have glitter, others have some sort of toy in inside). Sometimes “just a ball” can be compelling regardless…after all, silly bands are just rubber bands…
Well, the major feature of the Fushigi is that it is seemless and scuffless (at least until you start practicing… better buy two), so that, if done properly, it gives the illusion of a static ball. As I say, contact juggling is fine, but a bunch of people, whom I can only assume are strung out of PCP (do the kids still do PCP?), do not make me want to take up a new hobby…
…but they do make me want to laugh…
Oddly, Laurie and Brittany both picked up “Glitter Balls” last night. However, they were free at Borders with the coupon.
Hmmm, I looked it up, in Japanese “fushigi” apparently means “mystery” or “secret”, according to Wikipedia. Not the best name for, uh, a ball, unless it transforms into a robot or something…
I think it may… you just have to hold’em right!
the “secret” is… you just paid $20 FOR A BALL! HA! 🙂
Oh, but it’s a *shiny* ball. I actually popped over to amazon to have a look at contact juggling balls, and the surprise was that this price wasn’t too far out of range. The average price seems to be about $20 with outliers ranging from $5 for acrylic balls to $200 for super shiny balls.
Then again, if I wanted to take up contact juggling, I bet I could get started with any number of balls I have lying about the house.