Angry Birds Overload

It is a well-documented fact that by the time I pick up on a trend, that particular fad is on its last legs. But, at least I know I have no one by myself to blame for this: I don't do things just because the 'cool kids' tell me to do it (actually, I'm less inclined to do something the cool kids tell me to do) and have to come around to things at my own pace. This leads me to catching on late and since most fads are more shooting star than actual star, by now their time has come and gone. I have come to accept that. Personally, I'm not going to worry about it until I get to the point I'm demanded people talk to me about the movie which I just saw that came out five years ago.

Still, when everyone told me about the Angry Bird video game a couple years back I was my normal, slow-to-conform self. I didn't even try the game until May of this year when my sister got an iPhone for Mother's Day. Admittedly, I had a fun afternoon trying it out but since I don't have a smartphone yet I couldn't play beyond that day. Then a couple weeks ago I couldn't take my computer crashing every 10 minutes anymore and switched from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome. Turns out that on Chrome you can install applications (just like a smartphone) and one of the apps was Angry Birds. Of course I installed the free app and had 3 stars on every level within a couple of days. (It's an addictive little thing.) I can see why it was so popular. The thing is that this game also has provided me with an answer to why fads end shortly after I come around to them - I appears I accept trends about the same time as most advertising executives.

Up until now Angry Birds was just a fun little game that the young people played. Occasionally some snarky, on-line t-shirt company would make a shirt with an Angry Birds reference on it or it would be a throwaway line in some new comedy that was trying to prove how young and hip it was. But, in the last couple of weeks, the Angry Birds are everywhere. They're on TV advertising for everything from Internet browsers to mixed nuts. You can dress up like them for Halloween, buy computer speakers shaped like the birds or help yourself to any number of the usual products that happen when something goes mainstream: Angry Birds the slippers, Angry Birds the lunchboxes, Angry Birds the backpack, Angry Birds the flamethrower! It's all just too much.

You would think by now people would learn to slow down with the marketing. Instead of letting something stay at a simmer and last for longer, people are so impatient that they turn the heat up full-blast and everything burns out. I bet that if they had slowly introduced a few items at a time versus everything at once they could have made this phenomenon last several months. Instead, they are determined to make the public sick of them and their game in no time. My guess is you'll see a lot of that merchandise in a bargain bin shortly. And then it's not just going to be the birds who are angry.