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First Click: You don’t have to be smart to sell millions of dumb TVs

May 27th, 2015

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The tide seems to be turning against Smart TVs. Just look at the uptick in stories saying “you shouldn’t buy one” or begging for sales of a dumb equivalent. Vlad explained the case in detail last year. Still, it’s damn near impossible to find a dumb TV with cutting edge specs. As such, there seems to be growing opportunity for a budget television maker like TCL or Hisense to step in with the right advertising campaign and make a killing. Hell, the tagline practically writes itself:

"Our TVs are dumb because you’re smart"

or

"They can’t outsmart our dumb TVs"

Diesel won a Grand Prix award at Cannes for its “Be Stupid” campaign back in 2010. The ads played off the idea that it’s better to be stupid than smart. Stupid is daring, it’s fun and spontaneous, it’s the silly thing we do for love. Smart is boring, it’s planning your life instead of living it. Are you paying attention, TV industry? This is marketing gold and I’m giving it to you for free.

Because when it comes to TVs, smart really is stupid, and I’m the type of idiot who’s willing to give someone $2,000 for a 55-inch 4K dumb TV with HDR support and spectacular image quality.

Five stories to start your day


  1. A tiny string of text can disable iPhone Messages

    Apple device owners have discovered a string of text characters that, when received on an iPhone in Messages, can lock people out of the app and — reportedly in some cases — crash the phone. Users who receive the string with Messages open won't be able to go back to other conversations without crashing the app, while users who get the string on their lock screen won't be able to open the Messages app entirely.

  2. Confused by the FIFA corruption news? John Oliver explained it last year

    "FIFA is a comically grotesque organization," Oliver says. "In fact, telling someone about the inner workings of FIFA for the first time is a bit like showing someone 2 Girls 1 Cup. You do it mainly so you can watch the horrified expressions on peoples' faces." Have at it.

  3. Identity thieves nabbed 100,000 tax filings from the IRS

    Identity thieves used social security numbers and other data to access the tax filings of more than 100,000 Americans this year, the IRS has admitted. In a statement, IRS commissioner John Koskinen said the "Get Transcript" feature, which which allows people to access tax returns and other filings from previous years, was targeted by "extremely sophisticated criminals" who were then able to obtain an estimated $50 million in fraudulently claimed tax refunds.

  4. Man breaks Guinness hoverboard record after standing on a drone

    Catalin Alexandre Duru, broke the record this week on Lake Ouareau, Quebec, after riding his hoverboard for a distance of 905 feet and 2 inches — more than five times longer than the previous record. He did it using a propeller-based, drone-like prototype machine that lifted him to a height of about 15 feet above the lake's surface.

  5. Hot Topic is buying ThinkGeek

    Back in the '90s, retailer Hot Topic gained a level of notoriety by gobbling up punk / alternative culture and style and repackaging it for mall-going teens across the country. (I'm not judging, I may have bought a few Tool t-shirts there in my day.) Now, the company is getting its hands into geek culture — Hot Topic just bought Geeknet, owners of the goofy ThinkGeek.com online shop.

Dummy of the day