Frequent Boing Boing link-contributor Steve Portigal has written a great little article about "Meary," Japanese stick-on googly eyes that Meary fans paste onto everything that could conceivably be enhanced by a pair of friendly, eerie staring eyes.
The story of Meary is that it has a personality – the text on the hang tab reads (in part) "Meary can not live alone. She feels lonely everytime. …She is the mirror which projects your feeling…Meary has a dream..in which she makes a friend all over the world. If someone points at your Meary and ask you what it is, please tell him that it is a name of 'Meary,' and divide a little of your Meary into the man." So, the product that lets you express emotions through ordinary objects itself has emotions, and those emotions exhort you (the customer) to use Meary, to promote Meary, and to share Meary. Isn't that what anyone would want their customers to do? But the designers (Furo) have created a frame to do that comfortably – because they begin by projecting an identity onto the product (and by extension, the identities you will create by using the product), involving you in the relationship, and thus allowing you to ease "her" loneliness without feeling like a huckster.
(Thanks, Steve!)
