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nano day 25
Nov. 25th, 2017 07:11 amNanowrimo continues on, but in the spirit of 'I just finished my Halloween candy,' here is a Very Important Story.
Last year the Reeses peanut butter cups were the big mover in the Halloween candy I put out (totally understandable!), so this year I got two bags -- one big one to put out, and one small one for me. And since the small regular bag was the same price as the small "Halloween specialty" bag, that's the one I got. (The wrappers were purple! I'm so easy.)
ANYWAY. The Reeses "Halloween Printed Cups." The bag proudly proclaims "1 of 4 Halloween designs on every cup!" And the front of the bag shows what one assumes to be the four designs: a ghost, a bat, a jack-o-lantern, and the word BOO!
So each one is like a surprise, right? What will it be? Except it turns out the surprise is that they are ALL THE SAME. Every single one! Sixteen BOO!s and no ghosts, bats, or jack-o-lanterns. Which made me wonder, how does such a situation come to be?
1. Sheer coincidence. Statistics was something I memorized but never really understood, but I assume there's some statistical calculation that could be done.
2. The four designs were all printed in separate production runs and it was too expensive to blend them together before packaging. So all four designs exist, but each bag only has one.
Based on my own work experiences, though, my guess is that it happened something like this:
Exec: "Make Halloween pictures on the standard cups."
Marketing: "The Halloween packaging is done! It's fantastic, you'll love it, we already ordered the entire print run."
Production: "Bad news on the Halloween stamps. None of them are working; the lines are too fine, so you can't see it. We managed to salvage the BOO! by filling in the letters to make them solid."
Exec: "Do that with the others, then."
Production: "Can't do it; the machine's not designed for that."
Everyone: "..."
Sales: "I mean, *technically,* the ad copy is true. Each bag has one of the four designs. And it's for handing out at Halloween -- ha ha, it's not like anyone is going to sit down and eat a whole bag themselves!"
Everyone: "Problem solved."
Last year the Reeses peanut butter cups were the big mover in the Halloween candy I put out (totally understandable!), so this year I got two bags -- one big one to put out, and one small one for me. And since the small regular bag was the same price as the small "Halloween specialty" bag, that's the one I got. (The wrappers were purple! I'm so easy.)
ANYWAY. The Reeses "Halloween Printed Cups." The bag proudly proclaims "1 of 4 Halloween designs on every cup!" And the front of the bag shows what one assumes to be the four designs: a ghost, a bat, a jack-o-lantern, and the word BOO!
So each one is like a surprise, right? What will it be? Except it turns out the surprise is that they are ALL THE SAME. Every single one! Sixteen BOO!s and no ghosts, bats, or jack-o-lanterns. Which made me wonder, how does such a situation come to be?
1. Sheer coincidence. Statistics was something I memorized but never really understood, but I assume there's some statistical calculation that could be done.
2. The four designs were all printed in separate production runs and it was too expensive to blend them together before packaging. So all four designs exist, but each bag only has one.
Based on my own work experiences, though, my guess is that it happened something like this:
Exec: "Make Halloween pictures on the standard cups."
Marketing: "The Halloween packaging is done! It's fantastic, you'll love it, we already ordered the entire print run."
Production: "Bad news on the Halloween stamps. None of them are working; the lines are too fine, so you can't see it. We managed to salvage the BOO! by filling in the letters to make them solid."
Exec: "Do that with the others, then."
Production: "Can't do it; the machine's not designed for that."
Everyone: "..."
Sales: "I mean, *technically,* the ad copy is true. Each bag has one of the four designs. And it's for handing out at Halloween -- ha ha, it's not like anyone is going to sit down and eat a whole bag themselves!"
Everyone: "Problem solved."
