War

A challenge to all UK residents. What is the purpose of the red, cone-shaped object in the foreground, €0.99c in Aldi Germany? Hope this doesn't backfire. Strikes me only Brits could come up with such a stupid idea. Probably sold in every Tesco, Waitrose & Halfords.

On Thursday I was in Memmingen and took the opportunity to pop into Aldi, a treat as we don't often get the chance. While browsing, as all men do, at the gadget offers came across the red cone-shaped funnel object in the foreground and had to buy it, despite the €0.99c price tag.

This evening, I posted the above photo on Twitter along with the challenge. I knew it was mischievous but didn't quite expect the reaction it got with some 300+ comments in the following 6 hours.

The first "coffee filter" answer came in & I replied no, nothing to do with coffee (or tea) and only used for a few months a year, probably less in England than Germany or Scotland.

Then very sadly within an hour, a German scientist resident in the UK answered the mystery as he had done a Google search using the "Photo Search" function. I congratulated him and even posted a video showing how it worked.

However, the coffee filter comments kept coming and even started to get a little aggressive! eg:

"It is a coffee filter holder so you can make filter coffee without a coffee machine. Why do you think it is stupid when it has a sensible purpose?"


Even a Brit, who like me has lived in mainland Europe for years and knows me better than most people on Twitter, questioned my sanity. I got very close to the point of deleting the post afraid war would break out soon.

Was interesting if unintentional exercise in showing how people are quickly fooled into thinking what you want them to (surrounding the object with coffee-related items in the photo)  and not reading the text fully - the hint being the last word of the challenge "Halfords", the UK's large car parts & accessories chain stores.

As my mentor, Nogbad told me decades ago "Read what is written and not what you want to read".

Updated to modern times: "Read & look at what is written & shown, not what you want to read & see.

To avoid a repeat, I have still blocked comments on my posts. Don't want lovely Blip community falling for the bait.