A couple of days ago I wrote about how Beats headphones were made to appear “heavier” by inserting a few metal pieces into the devices (the metal pieces had absolutely nothing to do with the material that actually made the headphones work).  The reason for this was to deceive customers into thinking that heavier somehow equals better quality when test results indicate the Beats headphones are overpriced and underwhelming.

As obnoxious as it was to find this out, this may well be even more obnoxious:  It turns out candidates for various offices have turned to a “Rent a Crowd” company to fill up their events/speeches.  Why?  Obviously to make it look like whatever rally/speech they’re currently doing look more well attended and, hopefully, will look better in the evening news:

http://libertychat.com/2015/06/rent-a-crowd-company-admits-politicians-are-using-their-service/

…and it pains me to say this but: Is this really where we’re headed?  Is everything out there, every business and/or sales pitch, some kind of con?

I suppose its always been that way.  We advertise ourselves and/or our products and this makes more and more people see them and, hopefully, consider buying/electing them.

The ends, in these cases, justify the means.

If as a candidate for whatever office you want you have to rent a crowd to get yourself some traction, you hope that it leads to getting actual crowds interested in your candidacy later on.

Similarly, if you have a product you’re trying to sell and you create a TV commercial for it, you inevitably hire actors to show how much they like said product in the hopes that it will sell all the better.

And so it goes.