O2 sucks the joy out of Christmas and helps you crowdfund your presents
Christmas may be a time of giving, but O2 is betting on you deciding that it is actually the time for demanding. The company has launched a Kickstarter-style “Gift Hacker” crowdfunder. The idea is that you tell your family and friends you want one of the expensive gifts on offer, and then they can chip-in and pay for the gift – which will be delivered to you in time for Christmas.
Now don’t get us wrong – people working together to buy something nice for someone is great, and there’s nothing wrong with a recipient dropping a hint at what they might like… but isn’t there something peculiar about it becoming so cold and mechanised like this?
Perhaps the discomfort comes from it basically working the same way as a Kickstarter – in which you’re funding someone to be creative and make something brand new – or a Just Giving charity appeal, in which you’re actually helping people. By contrast all gift hacking is doing is giving already spoilt people more stuff.
To be honest though, we’re surprised Amazon didn’t think of it first.
