This morning, the campus was full of empty soda cans. A less than casual observer might have noted that the place (which borders a dump) apparently now has even more in common with it's surroundings.
The slightly different thing about these cans, however was that each one was tagged with a flyer.
Yes, apparently it was someones hyperactive brainchild to draw attention to the need for all us happy employees to recycle. Mind you, these are the same employees that stuff their Hummers into compact spots, litter the bathroom floor with print-outs from ESPN.com, leave piles of dirty dishes beneath "Don't leave your freaking dishes here you moron!" signs.
To no one else's surprise, i watched around ten other people stare and walk past several of these attention grabbing cans. i fully expect the bulk of them to be collected by our janitors.
Plus, the other retarted thing is that the few folks like me who actually do pick up these cans effectively deny the marketing message to all the folks who trod in later yammering on their cellphones about how bad traffic was on 101 coming in from The City, and how they wished they hadn't moved from Palo Alto.
Look, i understand the value of Clever Guerilla Marketing Techniques, the value of recycling, and all sorts of other issues. i also listened to Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant and know full well that if someone thinks someone else got away with something, they think they can too. Heck, i was half tempted to pile up a ton of like garbage on one of these cans just to prove the point.
If they really want to enforce recycling, there are other ways to go about it. Use posters, charge deposits, dress someone up like Woodsy the Owl and have him bitch slap someone who doesn't give a Hoot.
Dumping more trash on the floor isn't the best idea.
Hmm, the more i think about that Woodsy the Owl idea, the more i like it.
Let's start with the genius that came up with the cans all over the campus idea…
