Look, I get the whiteboard marker business is probably low on most people’s priority.
I also appreciate that if you work in this field, you probably want to feel like you’re doing something special … different … worth while … at least on a bigger scale than simply enabling people to write/draw rubbish in boardrooms.
But – and it’s a huge but – I can’t help but think the people behind the name for this whiteboard marker have slightly lost the plot …
Friendly?
Chisel?
Are they stark raving mad?
I swear to god you would have to be the most coke-snorting maniac to come up with those names.
What’s so friendly about this marker?
Does it do the writing for you?
Does it make your scrawl suddenly look neat?
Do other whiteboard manufacturers make their product hold a knife against your throat?
As for chisel?
A tool designed to hit things that will leave their mark in stone forever is literally the opposite to a whiteboard marker in almost everyway.
Where did that come from?
Did they want to big-up their role and significance or is it their way to add a psychological element to their product in the hope it makes the middle management who use it think their scribblings is the second coming of christ?
I’d respect them more if they named it, ‘A RED PEN FOR BAD MEETINGS’.
Or even ‘THE LOOK LIKE YOU’RE CONTRIBUTING WITHOUT CONTRIBUTING PEN’ …
But a friendly chisel?
Talk about an oxymoron.
Chisel’s aren’t friendly. You have to hit them to make them do anything.
Calling it a ‘stupid chisel’ might be more appropriate which is why the name of this bloody whiteboard pen has depressed me more than being invited to a 6 hour ‘brainstorm’ led by a middle manager who thinks leading a discussion that no one will pay any attention to is a demonstration of their emerging power and influence.
And no, I am not going over-the-top over this issue one little bit.
Ahem.