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Comment by dspig | Hacker News Reader

> As a bedside object, I really appreciate the lack of branding and visual clutter on the device.

Oh yes! Last thing before bed I wonder “why did I just have to see the name of the manufacturer of my bathroom taps?”. They are good taps but...

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This bugs me with just about everything. Manufacturers shouldn’t put visible branding on things unless that version is offered at a discount compared to the unbranded version.

Louis Vuitton and Rolex say what?

Well if money is speech their marketing departments are chatterboxes.

They say 'haha people will pay loads to see our names on stuff even if there's no other discernible difference in quality! haha conspicuous consumption and class signalling are great! lol'

Rolex makes some pretty high-quality watches.

Sure, but their price is entirely about what people are willing to pay and not at all connected to the cost of production. There are some Swiss watches that take an incredible amount of work by highly skilled craftsmen to make, but that's not Rolex. They're cranking out a million watches every year thanks to automation.

> their price is entirely about what people are willing to pay and not at all connected to the cost of production

You have a source on that?

The watches are not expensive to make, they are expensive to sell. The marketing and sales costs are going to be higher than the actual manufacturing.

This is one estimate saying it's between $300 and $800:

https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-actually-cost-Rolex-t...

Even if that's wrong, it's certainly under $1000. Gold ones will be higher, of course.

That makes sense if you are paying for cachet (conspicuous consumption)... And the majority of Rolex and LV buyers are.

But most brands do not carry that cachet.

Sure, I get that. They're Veblen goods.

Rolex bums me out though because I really like a few of their watches. I just can't get over having their brand name and logo appearing so many times on the watch. It feels tacky to me.

pisses me of so much with car parts. I don't want my floor mats to say WeatherTech on them! they are just floor mats, i don't want to know about them.

Shoes are the worst. It's next to impossible to find casual shoes without logos plastered on them like you're a sponsored athlete.

2 words, vans authentic

AllBirds were originally designed for exactly this reason - the founders didn't like the branding on shoes

If by "bathroom taps" you're talking about the faucet on your bathroom sink, I don't know about yours, but most of the ones I've seen don't have highly obvious branding. Usually I'd have to bend over and look at the front of it, right above where it's mounted on the sink, to see the manufacturer logo/name, and usually it's just etched into the chrome so it's not highly contrasting anyway.

LightDims and electrical tape and other strong tapes in various colors -> better.

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