Social Media Gone Wrong… The New 5
by Josh Levine
Disclaimer: This post may not be all that helpful.
I just need to vent. I’ve just come from the YouTube page for the United States Treasury, which features a “viral” video for the new $5 bill, as well as an unveiling of the new $100.
The $100 spot offers a walkaround as if to show us the features of a new car, while the $5 clip is a little infomercial packed with consumer reactions.
This is complete insanity. Why would anyone feel the need to market money? And where did they get the money to market money? Who approved this? There’s a long list of people who need to be fired immediately.
My guess is this is a case of someone taking the job a little too seriously and paying too much attention to all of the hype around social media. Sure, over 800,000 people watched the Ben Franklin video, but so what? Most of those people don’t have jobs, and won’t be getting their hands on a bill anytime soon. And even if they do, so what?
It seems obvious to me that money has no intrinsic value. That is, it doesn’t matter how nice the bill is, or how much it costs to print. The only thing that matters is what I can buy with it. Am I missing something? Is there some conceivable reason why it would be important for me to feel good about the $5 bill in my pocket, other than the fact that I can take it out of my pocket to buy a Hot Pocket? Or something else cheap that rhymes with pocket?
Someone please tell me why this makes sense. I would have written them directly, but of course comments have been disabled on the page.
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