Wacky Wednesday

I've been sitting on park benches wrong this whole time.
(Copyright Dr. Seuss, 1974)

   Who here loves Dr. Seuss? One of the most coveted items in the classroom way back in (one of) my elementary school was a book of the same name, and it was essentially a beginner's version of a “Where’s Waldo” book with scenery spanning two pages. In them the idea was to see how many things we’d see were out of place or didn’t make sense. One could spend a good amount of time just letting the eyes wander across the amusing illustrations. At the time it was great and at some point, classmates began to fight over who got it first. I bring this up because since then and the broad release of the Internet, there haven’t been as many novelty products we enjoyed, unless one spent a ton of time watching informercials on cable television. When the ‘net finally did become how we see and use it today, there’s been no shortage of oddball things submitted from one part of the world to the rest of us.

   Anybody who’s well aware of Japan’s culture knows how silly and creative they tend to be with their advertisements, informative but normally a tad too over-the-top for the rest of the world. Just about anywhere else has a slew of wacky merchandise or commercials you wonder if those involved were feeling well at the time of writing/design. My goal for every Wednesday is to highlight a thing or two that’s just a little weird, complete scams, or just FAIL in the aesthetics department, from the 1980s up until now.

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