Industries based on your stupidity

BDI

I heard from a fella there who is getting married and he was told by the wife that’s it’s now tradition that he has to organise an activity for her hen party.

So now there is all the normal hen party stuff but also they all have to go do the husbands activity as well.

Somewhere in the last few years some salesman convinced a bride to be that one activity wasn’t enough and her budget didn’t matter because it was the tradition of the husband to lay on paintballing in trabolgan.

Now it’s tradition dating back as far as social media.

The wedding industry I suppose is based on people’s stupidity, insecurity and need to show off.

Any other ones. Like every designer brand has a range of cheap white t shirts with their brand name on them and people pay an extra 20 or so quid to wear and advertise that brand. If gucci asked somebody to walk up and down o Connell street holding a sign saying Gucci for minimum wage most would laugh at them. But they will pay to wear it on a cheap white t shirt.

Mrs OBumble

Lotto


Taxback.com

thomas anderson.

I.T Support

Social media "influencer".

JupiterKid

The gambling industry in general...

...horse racing, greyhound racing, casinos, online gambling etc.

amacca

Modern car industry

Plastic vanity covers to trap unwanted heat

Plastic manifolds and piping guaranteed to crack

Overly complex electronics guaranteed to fail

Egr valves, dpfs pump8ng dirty exhaust gas back into engine etc etc

People would want to be stupid to buy these products, yet they queue up in their millions year after year

If they understood the product we would have much more reliable vehicles

It's the same in most industries where consumers have less of a connection or understanding what they are buying what takes over then is style over substance.....you need to get the product that has both or a reasonable trade off

suicide_circus

bottled water

Castlekeeper

JupiterKid wrote: »

The gambling industry in general...

...hore racing , greyhound racing, casinos, online gambling etc.

Ah them were the days....

kirving

amacca wrote: »

Modern car industry

Plastic manifolds and piping guaranteed to crack

Overly complex electronics guaranteed to fail

In fact it was a metal bolt and not the plastic manifold that cracked on my car. Overall though, I'll take a modern car every day of the week.

Electronics - I can't remember when my car has failed to start.

Cars that can predict when you're going to crash and tighten the seatbelts.

Headlights that actually allow you to see the road.

Heated electric seats and Bluetooth.

Crashes that you can walk away from that would have killed people in the past.

Way more efficient and clean than in the past, and with Electric cars increasing in popularity.

A modern car is expensive, but great value for money for what you get.

Only a problem if you can't afford it and buy a new car at €700pm PCP

theteal

suicide_circus wrote: »

bottled water

Tell that to a good chunk of north Dublin last week.

Notmything

If the state had proper, effective, early intervention services available for families that were struggling then we wouldn't have the "for profit" children's residential services sector which has grown massively in recent years.

bfa1509

BDI wrote: »

I heard from a fella there who is getting married and he was told by the wife that’s it’s now tradition that he has to organise an activity for her hen party.

So now there is all the normal hen party stuff but also they all have to go do the husbands activity as well.

Somewhere in the last few years some salesman convinced a bride to be that one activity wasn’t enough and her budget didn’t matter because it was the tradition of the husband to lay on paintballing in trabolgan.

Now it’s tradition dating back as far as social media.

The wedding industry I suppose is based on people’s stupidity, insecurity and need to show off.

Any other ones. Like every designer brand has a range of cheap white t shirts with their brand name on them and people pay an extra 20 or so quid to wear and advertise that brand. If gucci asked somebody to walk up and down o Connell street holding a sign saying Gucci for minimum wage most would laugh at them. But they will pay to wear it on a cheap white t shirt.

No offense to brides-to-be, but there is no one dumber than a bride-to-be.

All these "traditions" popping up are dumb as hell. Next thing gender reveal parties will be obligatory.

Peatys

Psychics

Sky King

The leaving cert grinds industry wouldn't be doing so well without stupid people, I guess.

Peatys

Sky King wrote: »

The leaving cert grinds industry wouldn't be doing so well without stupid people, I guess.

Inept teachers rather than stupid students.
If they can learn in grinds, they could have learned in class if the teachers were up to scratch. That said, it's 25 years since i sat my leaving, so hopefully teaching standards have gone up in the mean time.

BDI

bfa1509 wrote: »

No offense to brides-to-be, but there is no one dumber than a bride-to-be.

All these "traditions" popping up are dumb as hell. Next thing gender reveal parties will be obligatory.

Somebody will mention it’s bad luck not to have one, then old women up and down the country will be threatening social services on women who don’t have them.

daheff

theteal wrote: »

Tell that to a good chunk of north Dublin last week.

all they had to do was boil the water coming out of the tap. no need for bottled watet

Belladonna44

The weight loss industry. Join a weight loss class, lose some weight, re-gain said weight (plus a little extra), re-join class. It’s a highly profitable business model.

Sky King

Peatys wrote: »

Inept teachers rather than stupid students.
If they can learn in grinds, they could have learned in class if the teachers were up to scratch. .

I don't necessarily agree. It might just take them twice as long to learn because they're a dullard and the teacher can't afford to spend the extra time it takes to teach them.

c.p.w.g.w

Peatys wrote: »

Inept teachers rather than stupid students.
If they can learn in grinds, they could have learned in class if the teachers were up to scratch. That said, it's 25 years since i sat my leaving, so hopefully teaching standards have gone up in the mean time.

Reminds me of a science teacher when I was doing my LC, literary everyone from his physics class attended the same grind on a Saturday morning it was pretty embarrassing

Princess Calla

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Reminds me of a science teacher when I was doing my LC, literary everyone from his physics class attended the same grind on a Saturday morning it was pretty embarrassing

Yeah and when everyone gets good results the teacher gets the credit.

corner of hells

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Reminds me of a science teacher when I was doing my LC, literary everyone from his physics class attended the same grind on a Saturday morning it was pretty embarrassing

You probably could have attended English grinds too.

c.p.w.g.w

corner of hells wrote: »

You probably could have attended English grinds too.

I'm actually dyslexic, but still got an A1 in my English OL

corner of hells

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

I'm actually dyslexic, but still got an A1 in my English OL

So am I, it urined my exams.

Del2005

Diamond engagement rings. DeBeers couldn't sell their diamonds so marketed them at brides and now it's a massive industry. They even made up the amount the man is supposed to spend!

Day Lewin

The whole fizzy C0la drinks industry. I mean, why do they exist?

BDI

I would say teaching was exploited by smart people to gain way more than the majority of teachers deserve at the expense of resources for the students. I would not however say that it was an industry based on stupidity.

padd b1975

Alcohol free beer.

BENDYBINN

Golf clubs........10,000 Euro to be a member.....

pgj2015

The apple iphone industry. spend 1,200 euro on a phone when a 100 euro one would be fine.

anewme

I suppose you could say that about anything you are not into yourself.

Watches: Why pay thousands for a watch when you could get one in the pound shop that works perfectly.

Football: A massive industry based on what is effectively a load of people chasing after a ball of wind?

Holidays: Spending a load of money to see something in a far flung place.

Fast Food: Millions spent on Junk that makes people fat and unhealthy. Then the weight loss industry. You pay to put it on and you pay to take it off.

Cars: why drive a Porsche when a Dacia Duster gets you from A to B.

The point is, just because you don’t like it, does not mean someone else sees it as a valid service or something they choose to pay for. It does not make them stupid either, as we all like different things.

Homelander

Weight Watchers products. A bag of our crisps/a biscuit/a desert is only 70 calories!

Yes, because it's half the size of other brands but costs twice as much.

Wanderer2010

Anyone who claims to be in contact with the dead or who can send messages from the other side*


* for a fee, of course...

anewme

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Anyone who claims to be in contact with the dead or who can send messages from the other side*


* for a fee, of course...

Definitely exploiting people’s vulnerabilities.

Again,I’d say not always based on stupidity, If someone has lost a person in tragic circumstances , they will try anything to get peace.

Most of the beauty and cosmetics industry.

I say most because there's a good reason to use moisturizer or hand cream or use mascara, but the rest of it is based on smoke, mirrors and untruths. You don't need products like lip scrub, and I'll bet the farm on it never occurring to anyone that it should be a thing, until the cosmetics giants decided it was a marketable thing. A good friend is a cosmetic chemist for a global parent company of dozens of brands, the reality is a depressing tale of manipulative marketing and ambivalently worded claims and implications that amount to lies.

Manufacture and fuel the insecurity, then sell the product that alleviates the insecurity (for a while) - and now you've normalized everything from special eyebrow wax to lip or scalp scrub to intimate bleaching to silicone primers that form an impermeable layer on a persons skin, causing issues that require remedial attention, and those remedial products are made by another arm of the same company that makes the primer. The biggest win is getting the targets to use the language of the marketing department. When people start talking about their glow or their closed pores - meaningless terms - they're locked-in consumers.

I don't think people who enjoy makeup or skincare are stupid, I've got my own fair share of oils and lotions. I realize it's a sort of hobby for many and people enjoy it for it's own sake. It just angers me that the big companies play us for stupid, and that we get sucked into a spiral of spending on nonsense that often disappoints and winds up in the bin, and I hate that that plays directly into their hands.

Cantona's Collars

Big tubs of protein for people wanting to get swo.
Basically stuff left over from dairy which with clever marketing is a multi billion euro industry instead of feeding it to pigs.

Riva10

Global Warming

StupidLikeAFox

Del2005 wrote: »

Diamond engagement rings. DeBeers couldn't sell their diamonds so marketed them at brides and now it's a massive industry. They even made up the amount the man is supposed to spend!

Yes indeed. They marketed that bigger was better for the engagement ring. But then they discovered lots of diamond mines that were filled with smaller stones, so the "eternity" ring was born. Very claver altogether

freshpopcorn

Not sure exactly how to word this but people who dispose of a car or appliance to get a new eco friendly one that will save them money however they won't see savings for years and years to come. Then there's disposing of the old item and production of the new item which isn't exactly great for the environment either.

Supermarkets with their money off vouchers if you spend 50e etc.,it entices people to buy more than they need imo and makes more money for the supermarket.Also the offers of 2 for 1or 3 for 2e and similar, again it's to make people buy more than they want or need and a lot of things like veg etc. just get dumped.

0gac3yjefb5sv7

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

Big tubs of protein for people wanting to get swo.
Basically stuff left over from dairy which with clever marketing is a multi billion euro industry instead of feeding it to pigs.

Swo?

Mrs OBumble

Candie wrote: »

Most of the beauty and cosmetics industry.

I say most because there's a good reason to use ... or use mascara

There is? Do share?

Moisturiser, I'd agree. The rest is marketing + dumbness.

Biodegradable

suicide_circus wrote: »

bottled water

Why? If you don't have water handy, are you going to drag around your own distiller and filter? Or maybe you could buy a dehumidier and have it suck to moisture out of the air, but with those you'd need a place to plug it in.

The Tetrarch

Foreign holidays.

Graces7

Deleted User wrote: »

Supermarkets with their money off vouchers if you spend 50e etc.,it entices people to buy more than they need imo and makes more money for the supermarket.Also the offers of 2 for 1or 3 for 2e and similar, again it's to make people buy more than they want or need and a lot of things like veg etc. just get dumped.

Beg to vehemently disagree … Most of us are very savvy and very grateful for these offers .
They help greatly. believe me. and enable a bit of luxury...

Dumped? Never!

Martina1991

Someone having a child is now a big money spinner.

-Gender reveal party
-Baby shower
-Birth
-Christening

We have to do anything the yanks do.

Graces7

The dazzling array of various cleaning liquids in the shops. BUY US ALL! All you need is soap, bleach, polish .

Ubbquittious

People paying for extra 'gold' in online games. Makes no sense at all. It can work out well for the odd youtuber with lots of subscribers for most it's money down the drain.

mikhail

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Swo?

"Swole" (from swollen) is a slang adjective for the muscular look bodybuilders chase. I don't know whether he left out a couple of letters by acciden or the interweb has weirded English yet further.

mr.anonymous

Consumerism in general. Nothing more than created wants and selling you a better version of yourself with their product in hand.

Would disagree about travel/holidays though. Might be heavily marketed but at least it can be an enriching personal experience (unlike a Gucci handbag or iPhone X).

Wibbs

Pheonix10 wrote: »

Swo?

Short for swole, which in turn is short for swollen, which is a term referring to body building types who want to grow big muscles.