Friday, February 23, 2024

Temu's "Shop like a Billionaire" Superbowl Ad is a celebration of mindless indulgence

 


Is Temu just Chinese for "Amazon," or what?  I mean, it doesn't seem to be offering anything that Amazon didn't "gift" civilization with more than a decade ago- a really quick way to make impulse buys of cheap crap produced by child labor with the touch of a screen.  I guess Temu just concentrates on all of the amazing "crafts" and clothes that are being disgorged from factories stretching from Manchuria to Senegal?  The very best that tiny little hands can sew and stitch and nail together?

"Shop like a Billionaire" sounds like "shop like money means nothing to you," which sounds cool but for the vast majority of us, money is actually a pretty finite asset that we have to spend carefully to get us from month to month.  Making it super-easy to buy stuff doesn't magically put more of it in our pockets.  Some of us have to actually pay our debts; it sounds like the only billionaire* Temu wants us to shop like is that guy who used to be President of the United States.

And I'm no worshipper of small businesses, but this has to be the most anti-small business, anti- "shop locally" commercial I've ever seen.  Want something available at the store down the street?  Buy a slightly cheaper-at-point-of-contact-but-not-cheaper-in-the-long-run version from your phone and get it sent to you from the other side of the planet at enormous cost TO that planet.  Because that's what a billionaire would do, I guess. 

*not actually a billionaire, like, ever. 

2 comments:

  1. They've automated shopping at the mall: the most of everything and the best of nothing.

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    1. everything that I've read about the products is that they are dollar-store quality at best. And we all know how much Billionaires like shopping at dollar stores.

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