Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Idiot Product of the Year?



Here in France it's La RentrĂ©e; the time when all children go back to school, and parents are given huge lists of what each child will require.

Publicity arrives with the post by the bucket-full, and I've just spotted this thoroughly IRRESPONSIBLE advert' amongst the new-academic-year's essential scholastic paraphernalia.

Any parent buying this 'syringe pen' for their small child deserves to be horse-whipped.
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23 comments:

  1. Haven't noticed them here thank goodness.

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  2. Totally agree,must be a man invention ...lol I bet some will but them though...

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    1. I wonder. I can't imagine even the most stupid parents thinking these are fun.

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  3. That is appalling. Utterly cynical and irresponsible. What sort of whizkid thought that would be a fun thing for children!

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  4. Any toddler whipping one of those out in class her in Blighty would be Tasered by Teacher's second teaching assistant's social secretary's deputy and shipped off to rehabilitation before they could ask what page of their text book they should turn to.

    Quite like the idea of a Colt-45 laser pointer though for field trips to airports and such. Do kiddiwinkles still get to go on field trips these days or has that faded into history?

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    1. Ah yes, I'd forgotten that. When I was a sprog almost every skule I went to (and there were many) had billions of terrifying acres of things called "sports fields" where we used to learn trench warfare and the trajectories of missiles that we'd knocked up in metalwork class. I don't suppose the great they can even get insurance to take the little buggers off the premises these days.

      Remember the days of wandering through woods looking for lesser-spotted throgwarts or standing in the High Street sketching the Doric columns of Woolworths? It's probably all done by virtual reality these days - headphones and screens and joysticks.

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  5. Idiots indeed! "N'importe quoi" springs to mind.

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  6. Cheap though. I wonder if you can any colour other than red?

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  7. That last comment suggests you may be thinking of buying one Tom - send him a disclaimer Cro - or better still put it on your blog. They are pretty hideous. From years of teaching I have always known that the French system was in many ways 'worse' than ours - this is positive proof I think.

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  8. I seem to remember this caused a great outcry in England a while back. I thought the manufacturers had agreed not to make the red one. I shall have to Google it now to refresh my memory (a regular event nowdays!).

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like they've been around for a while then!

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  9. I bet they get banned in the first week back to school. Like you say, only an idiot would give that to their kid.

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  10. I have not seen them here in the U.S. yet and hope not in future.

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  11. At least they won't be sharing dirty needles.

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    1. Don't you believe it, they'll probably re-enact that too!

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  12. I cannot imagine any parent buying that for their child in the first place.

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  13. How totally absurd! With the zero tolerance rules in effect in U.S. schools, no child could get away with having a pen like that in class. I'd like to think no parent would be foolish enough to purchase them for the kiddies, either, but I'm afraid, given the opportunity, some would.

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  14. it does not take a genius to think that this is somewhat of a bad idea!
    duh!

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  15. Argh what is wrong with people Cro?! The need for profit has led some design 'expert' on a very wrong path! See that it is priced low enough for pocket money, how nice :(

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  16. You need a fair few idiots in the chain before one of these gets into the hands of a child - the designer, the manufacturer, the importer, the shop owner/manager and, of course, the "parent".

    Do we have enough whips to go around?

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  17. I remember having a pen like this for a bit. It was to advertise a doctor's office, and the nurse gave it to me when i told her i thought it was neat. (or neato--this was back in the day)

    I used that pen at home for a long while-never took it to school because i didn't want anyone to be so overcome with envy that they would steal it from me.

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