This is Marketing 101 though. It's easier to sell someone a dream or some emotional state than it is to sell an actual product/thing that you have. I'd give people a little more credit. Adults know what advertisements are and that they're all phony.
I don't disagree, although I'd be a bit more nuanced than that. It is like herbal supplements, you can say how great they make you feel but you have to avoid making medical claims that you can't back up.
I don't think anyone would have flinched at setting the stage like "At IBM we're working on technology so that some day your interaction with a computer can be as simple as sitting down and having a conversation."
Setting expectations you cannot meet is something you try to avoid in Marketing. Because you get angry op eds like the one that kicked off this conversation.
>I don't think anyone would have flinched at setting the stage like "At IBM we're working on technology so that some day your interaction with a computer can be as simple as sitting down and having a conversation."
Like those old AT&T commercials (available on YouTube) where AT&T made all kinds of predictions about the future that seemed crazy in the 1980's, but are reality 35 years later. Video calls, instant electronic toll booth payment, etc...
A lot of non-technical decision makers don't think this is phony and are making life very difficult for engineers in their companies we will all remember this though. For the future.
