The Wired Store in New York’s Soho is yet again a brand extension gone wrong. Oh it looks nice, but we have a little bit of a problem with the content and why it’s there.
For starters, while publishers have to clearly specify in their mags what is paid for content and what is not, that rule fails to be considered when it comes to their retail spin offs. It’s not about curation as you might expect – the Wired Store is full of crap we just can’t imagine anyone on the Wired editorial team really cares about. You can here the team singing, “Do what we say, not what we do.” The majority of these gadgets must be there, in our opinion, because it’s paid-for-placement with zero transparency: banks of laptop PCs (yes PCs!), dodgy cameras, fat-boy cushions and X-Box systems. OK, they threw in an Apple laptop, a $100 laptop and a Wii in to distract us. Overall though, most of the stuff is a poor reflection on the magazine that should be a thought leader in the technology space.
And also (if we can get over how Wired ignores its editorial about concerns over mass consumption by putting on a store that encourages it) the biggest problem we have with the whole set up is the Infiniti G37 car sat in the entrance: Hey, you know Wired – the mag that had Al Gore on the cover and usually has green articles just growing out of it? What the hell is a 21 miles per gallon old-fashioned engine car doing in their gift store? Kerching!! No brown envelope exchanged there, then, no?
Wired, you let yourselves down.
Our photos from this year and last
If you must visit: 60 Greene Street, New York
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