RANT - Pointless Packaging

I used to work with an excellent sales manager in London (Andrew Sutcliffe, that's you!) who memorably used the line in one presentation: "Why use a picture when a thousand words will do". I've stolen that observation many times since then, especially when reviewing some wordy, bloated piece of marketing.

Having just sat on a sodium pentathol (truth serum)-laden syringe, I'll admit that I like talking. I like details. Which makes it all the more surprising that I'm combining THREE (count 'em) reviews in one!

I'm using my new point-and-shoot camera (RAVE - Canon S95) to take a picture of one of a ton of new cables I've bought (RANT - Pointless Packaging) to re-position my 4x1TB disk systems (RAVE: Western Digital 1TB USB Disk Drives).

The main point? Naturally, the RANT. It feels SO much better to complain than it does to applaud.

These power cables are packaged 3 for $11.95, shrink-wrapped in an annoyingly access-resistant outer pack. Once the excited buyer burrows into that outer pack, each cable is held doubled by a twist-wire. Why? The cables would have folded nicely and stayed folded inside the shrink wrap.

Then, each cable has 3 sticky labels. The first, a neat little gold label attached with industrial strength glue, gives the cable's voltage tolerance. Arguably useful information, but seeing as no commercial oil rigs, passenger aircraft or deep cut mining equipment is powered by a simple 3-pin power plug, there's not much danger of me hooking up anything more lethal than a toaster with these puppies. Nix the gold label therefore.

Second is a huge label clearly targeted at Neanderthal homeowners new to the wonders of electricity. "Danger: Electrical Cords are Hazardous". Well, place that straight in the "freaking obvious" file. The label goes on to describe the many and horrible ways the luckless Neanderthal can perish through mismanagement of the cable. They might as well slap on a "Caution: Tigers can bite" sticker while they're at it. Needless to say, no attention is ever paid to these labels, so the manufacturers can lose these too.

Thirdly, and possibly the stupidest label I've seen on any product, and that includes Japanese urinals, is the ludicrous "The length of this cable is eight inches". I'm not quite speechless, but certainly struggling to comment further without running foul of the censors.

It probably costs as much to attach the 3 labels, twisty wire and shrink wrap as it does to make the cable. It certainly takes longer to release the cables from their Fort Knox-worthy packaging than it does to deploy them, and so deserves a RANT.