The Organ Grinder’s Monkey

D’OH!!!

Color me monkey-butt red. Yanno that Trendwatching briefing I posted about on the 6th? The one decrying the death of the pet goods economy, the surging interest in boring hotels and the *shudder* advances in in-utero marketing? Yeah, it’s a hoax. A fake. A spoof.

I got this email on the 7th, but I hadn’t checked this particular inbox before I left for my week long, internet-free vacation. So I’m probably the last to know. Except for you, of course:

We hope you enjoyed the very special trend briefing we sent you yesterday. If you didn’t, then please pour yourself a strong cup of coffee and take another close look. It’s a SPOOF. Fake. Not to be taken at face value. Even most of the sites we referred to are, well, ours—and entirely fictitious.

We thought it would be fun, just for once, to mock overzealous marketers, crass consumerism and—above all—ourselves. So please don’t ditch your pet, stay in ugly hotels, pollute the earth, paint your walls turquoise or start marketing to unborn babies, OK?

Rest assured that we’ll back with ‘real’ trends in December, the kind of trends you’ve been getting from us since 2002. If you can’t wait that long, check out our Trend Database or our 2008 Trend Report. All real, all authentic, all useful.

Best,

Reinier Evers
Founder, trendwatching.com
reinier@trendwatching.com

Thank God. I was really starting to worry about a world filled with green backlash, mass pet abandonment and prenatal branding. Thank goodness it was only a bad dream, Auntie Em.

But still. It was a cruel, cruel trick. Oh, and uh, if you know anywhere I can offload a like-new turquoise SUV with handstitched seal-fur seats and chihuahua trim, drop me a line will you? It’s, uh, for a friend of mine. A really, really gullible friend…

Tags: Business, Housekeeping, Announcements and Related Fussing About, Trends //