It was supposed to be a casual meet up but we ended up poisoning each other.
Last Sunday, three friends (me included) wandered into a digital mall in PJ, armed with credit cards and lethal doses of persuasive skills. You see, when marketing folks shop together, we don’t just encourage each other– we deploy the same psychological tactics we typically reserve for work.
“That RTX 5080 graphics card? It’s not just a want– it’s practically a necessity for your home office productivity. And when you finish your spreadsheets, you can relax with a ray-traced 3D game at 200fps…”
That was the opening salvo from my friend, delivered with the same smooth confidence he uses in PowerPoint presentations. But let’s be honest– we didn’t really need much convincing.
It always starts innocently. There we were, just minding our own business, when someone innocently asks about some obscure feature on the latest gadget. At first, it’s all civilized debate and thoughtful discussion. “Oh, that’s a fascinating use case!” we would say, nodding in agreement.
Then comes the moment of truth– someone looked at the price tag and proclaim that it not unreasonable. Suddenly, we transform from rational adults into competitive marketeers, each trying to convince the other to be the guinea pig. “You should totally get it first! Then tell me if it’s worth it,” I’ll suggest, knowing full well I have no intention of parting with actual money until someone else confirms it’s not just another shiny paperweight destined for my drawer of technological regrets.
The rest of the afternoon in the mall was a relentless exercise in self-sabotage. We took turns persuading each other to consider a new PC, high-resolution AR glasses, a 40-inch ultrawide gaming monitor, a high-performance gaming WiFi router, and a must-have ergonomic mouse with 8K DPI sensors– plus much, much more. We bombarded ourselves with the classic “limited-time offer” pressure, sprinkled in multiple “you’ll-never-get-it-this-cheap-again” FOMO twists, and executed a psychological pressure marketing masterclass– on ourselves
We’re like members of a very peculiar support group– except instead of helping each other resist temptation, we’re all enablers with professional marketing expertise. And the best part? We convince ourselves it’s a bargain because we get to live vicariously through each other’s tech splurges without spending money ourselves.
The truth of the matter is that our credit card bills tell a different story at the end of the month.