the end-user is nigh

Dear end-user,

Secret Wombat would like to thank you for reading this blog. Secret Wombat is committed to providing quality-assured, value-added, text-based reading material…

I actually had in my possession, a few weeks ago, a brochure that I wish I’d kept so that I could scan it and post it here. It was flogging apartments in some Manila high-rise development, and it actually began “Dear end-user…”

There are no people any more. Even “Dear potential resident” would be better than “Dear end-user”. “Dear moneyed-up sucker” would be better still.

Dear end-user…

How can anyone think it’s actually OK to write that? How can anyone who manages someone who writes that look at the draft and say, “Great job, print 100,000!”?

I want to see letters from coffin retailers that describe their potential customers as end-users.

My Dear end-user brochure officially marked the beginning of the end.

If you don’t know why it’s the beginning of the end, there is nothing that can be done for you. Exit this blog now, please.