Lately, Visa has been running these ads in Canada to encourage people to make all their small purchases with their credit cards, with "smallenfreude" as the key word in the campaign.
First of all, let me say that this ad just doesn't work. What did they do wrong? Well, building it around a word people don't understand, the similarity to schadenfreude, the subtext of weird sex practices among your suburban neighbours, and the guy's grinning stare that's supposed to be funny-creepy, but is really just creepy-creepy. I haven't seen such a collision of bad ideas in a single commercial since the infamous "baby got squarepants" Burger King ad that I literally had to look up on the Internet a few hours after I first saw it just to convince myself it wasn't some bizarre dream. (Remember, you cannot un-see this.)
But the thing about small purchases on credit cards: I'd heard that retailers don't like you to pay small amounts with a credit card, because they have to pay a bigger fee for transactions than with debit cards. So I assumed that if Visa is making a big push to change how people use their credit cards, they must have changed how they assess their fees.
Nope. As you may have seen on CBC news, small businesses are furious because Visa orchestrated this whole campaign without changing a system that screws retailers on small purchases.
This brings up the question: do we even need credit cards any more? It used to be that credit cards were an awkward agreement between customers and the credit card companies: they give us a convenient way to pay without carrying around huge amounts of cash, and in return, they get to take advantage of people who are stupid enough to spend money they don't have. But now we have debit cards, which give us the same convenience but without the temptation to overspend. The credit cards do offer some protections like warranties and some protection from fraud. And if American Express is to be believed, they can also turn three-star into a-million-star dining, whatever the hell that means.
First of all, let me say that this ad just doesn't work. What did they do wrong? Well, building it around a word people don't understand, the similarity to schadenfreude, the subtext of weird sex practices among your suburban neighbours, and the guy's grinning stare that's supposed to be funny-creepy, but is really just creepy-creepy. I haven't seen such a collision of bad ideas in a single commercial since the infamous "baby got squarepants" Burger King ad that I literally had to look up on the Internet a few hours after I first saw it just to convince myself it wasn't some bizarre dream. (Remember, you cannot un-see this.)
But the thing about small purchases on credit cards: I'd heard that retailers don't like you to pay small amounts with a credit card, because they have to pay a bigger fee for transactions than with debit cards. So I assumed that if Visa is making a big push to change how people use their credit cards, they must have changed how they assess their fees.
Nope. As you may have seen on CBC news, small businesses are furious because Visa orchestrated this whole campaign without changing a system that screws retailers on small purchases.
This brings up the question: do we even need credit cards any more? It used to be that credit cards were an awkward agreement between customers and the credit card companies: they give us a convenient way to pay without carrying around huge amounts of cash, and in return, they get to take advantage of people who are stupid enough to spend money they don't have. But now we have debit cards, which give us the same convenience but without the temptation to overspend. The credit cards do offer some protections like warranties and some protection from fraud. And if American Express is to be believed, they can also turn three-star into a-million-star dining, whatever the hell that means.
ok-that burger king video is really really really really bad. I wish I could un-see it (but you did warn me. I also saw the smallenfreude commercial and wondered what the hell they were doing. Doesn't sound like great marketing to me!
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