Life Usual bi-monthly trip to Manchester. Was accosted in the street by an older woman with a clipboard. I usually follow these people wherever, but for some reason I decided against it today. But she chased after me ... "You're getting £4!" she screamed enticingly. Well in that case ... So I'm led into a tiny box room in a hotel and it transpires it's about mobile phones and in particular 3G. Now I'm no fan of this new technology, from the point of view that the companies shelled out billions for something Wi-Fi has effectively rendered worthless, but which they are still ploughing on ahead with at the expense of that better technology.

It's the usual questionaire which invites the interviewee to give many negative responses without ever actually asking why you aren't warm and fuzzy. And it drags on forever. And the market researcher doesn't seem to have a clue. I have to repeat many of the answer three or four times and actually work out which flash card matches the questions she's asking for her. Really worked for my money. The crux of the matter is that I don't need to have comedy clips, or film trailers or soccer goals downloaded to my mobile. I speak, some one answers. That'll do.

In some ways I wished some people who are vaguely in the public eye at the moment had been there. When the woman asked if I'd heard of o2, I said that I had because they'd sponsored Big Brother. 'What's that?' she asks ...

No comments: