The book arrived in what I consider the perfect packaging. Maybe in ambition but at least not in terms of impact. Something about this makes me very happy, even though I don't think that (fiction) publishers are anywhere near the evilness of academic publishers or tech companies.
Because a market full of consumers who'll decide what to buy based on some Peacock Design(TM) box won't solve them.Īs a personal anecdote from just a few days ago: I just bought a second-hand paper book, as I tend to do more and more. At best, it should be irrelevant beyond "does it protect the product to the degree necessary given the distribution channel?"Īs such, the whole boxing & unboxing stuff just illustrates to me why we need political guidance on big problems: climate change, public transit, pollution, repairability, 2nd-hand markets etc (yes these are all related but also distinct) need political change. But honestly, the only rational thing then is to use the beauty of the packaging as a negative indicator for the thing being sold to you. I mean, if we can't disentangle our opinion of a multi-thousand dollar device (thinking macbook) from the sub-dollar packaging it comes in, how can anyone still say that consumers (and thus markets!) make rational decisions? Sure, people might say they distinguish the two.
I think I understand the reasoning of companies to sink time & money into this, but the fact that it works, while maybe unsurprising from a psychological viewpoint, makes me sad about the state of humanity. It's the perfect summary of unboxing and even giving a fuck about the packaging at all. I love that the hook is the picture here.
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