Have you guys heard about the Budweiser Buddy Cup yet? Hold on a second and watch this video. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
You’ve seen it now? Good. You at the back, what do you mean you haven’t? Oh couldn’t watch the video eh? Well let me fill you in. It’s a paper cup for beer that has Budweiser branding, because even the people behind the wonderfully creative “Whaaaaasssssuuuuuup?” adverts weren’t about to put Miller Genuine Draft adverts on their own cups. On the bottom of the cup is a QR code (one of those square barcodes that no-one in history has ever used but have been called the next big thing for a decade) that you scan with your phone to connect that particular paper cup with your Facebook account. I’ll give you a moment to get over the horror of that before leading onto the genius idea behind why you have to connect the mug to your Facebook account. You clink (is it really clinking when you use a paper cup) the cups together and it will connect to your Facebook account and add that person as a friend.
What the motherfuck is going on there? Which idiot came up with this idea? Let me explain to you exactly why this is a bad idea. Let’s assume that you will be holding onto the same paper cup all through whatever event you’ve been to and have used it in the way it was designed. Let’s assume that you have somehow dodged the slightly rapey guy that has been “accidentally tripping” each time he’s come near you and thrust his cup at yours. None of that matters.
You see, at the end of the event you will not be allowed to leave holding your drinks as the licensing involved stops them being able to allow that. So your Facebook linked cup is now left in a bar at the mercy of the staff. Now, I’m not saying that they are going to start fucking around with the cups and matchmaking people for the fun of it (although, let’s face it, they are going to be doing that). I’m not even saying that the creepy bartender with the wooden leg and habit of holding eye contact while he licks his lips slowly will be adding the girls he liked the look of to his own friends list. Although again, this will be happening. What I’m saying is that these cups on the floor and tables are going to be collected together and thrown into garbage bags together. Rapey McDave and all the other people you didn’t clink with now have a chance of being automatically added as your friend, being given whatever access to the personal information that you have reserved for a friend.
At some point in the design process someone had to think about this, surely? No, no? Seriously Budweiser, no-one looked at the design and said “Whaaaaasssssuuuuuup with this shit?”
