Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Radio Shackizzle

I'm sorry I said "Shackizzle". Radio Shack is trying to become hip. Ya know, "with it". 23 skidoo! How will they perform such a feat? They'll change their name to The Shack. As in, "dude, let's motor to The Shack and score some awesome MOSFETs!" "Like dude, I'm so there!" "Dude, sweet, like dude!" I'm not sure that hipifying your own image actually works. Do all the kids now hang at Wendy's because their new commercials have a sweet young thing voicing Wendy so she sounds totally brain–dead; "it's wayyyyy better than fast food." I don't know if it worked for McDonald's when they started using the annoying "Mickey D's" in their advertising because the place was already popular with the urban crowd.

No matter. Changing the name is not going to sell more electronics parts, RC tanks, or goddamn cell phones (which seems to be their main meal ticket these days). I'd say to respect your history and forefathers and don't fuck with the name. It's an American mainstay, and I'll refuse to call it The Shack. Just fix the logo so the R is in the center of the circle. It looks like an alignment problem the way it is. Or come up with something that won't be confused with the ® symbol. And if you change anything, try hiring actual geeks and electronics nerds instead of the really weird guys in their late 20s who think they're should be having a power lunch because they wear a button–down shirt and a tie, could be easily mistaken for terrorists, and vow to seek vengeance on any customer who doesn't buy a service plan or who returns something. Seriously, I haven't seen a Radio Shack employee for the past 10 years who doesn't freak me out.

2 comments:

torgo said...

You forget the most important part - they'd obviously get more customers if they were still selling quality Tandy computer systems.

Kevin Patrick Gannon said...

Well said. Especially the part about hiring actual, competent tech geeks.