willc.me

Sitting on the bus this morning in a semi-dazed haze of alcohol fuelled pain a van caught my eye out the window. It was a rubbish removal van that was pristine. It’s red tipper polished to a gleaming shine, it’s white cab positively glowed. The company was called “Any Junk?” and the sight of their pristine little van set off a train of thoughts in my mind about society in general.

This little van for removing unwanted rubbish became a microcosm of society in my mind as the bus followed it. It may seem obvious but we live in a truly aesthetic society. That van is used to throw junk in the back of and therefore, you would imagine that it would be dirty. A few streets later I saw an old van being used to remove rubbish from a shop renovation that was battered and dented. One that you may have expected to see a few years ago.

So what, it was a clean van? But it’s more than that. People have sat in a meeting and decided that the companies vans would be cleaner than any other. And because of that they will receive more business than their rivals and be a more successful company.

The same thing was done by Pimlico Plumbers. They manage to charge almost double what their rivals do, simply because their plumbers are smarter and their vans are clean and pristine. Each even has it’s own personalized number plate that say stuff like “drain” and “u bend”. It’s the little touches that make the product better and more successful.

And if plumbers and junk removal people are doing you know that everyone else is. At the end of the day it’s more pleasing to the eye and makes everything a little smarter. And that’s pretty cool.