All the same, there's a block, a black mark across the mind, bubbled and scratched and defaced by white blobs, like a popcorn'd barcode. This is the QR Code, not "the humble" or "the dear old", just the straight down the line, aren't we all fans, let's celebrate our cleverness QR Code. It cannot be my age or lack of a decent scanner, it has to be plain old common sense, because I just do not understand the appeal. It's the worst kind of technological clever-clever, not too dissimilar to using an in-joke at an interview, or eating English food with chopsticks.
The latest company to grind my particularly well oiled gears on this is Heineken. I don't drink Heineken, preferring beer/ale which tastes of something, rather than fizzy water with a hint of battery acid, so their "Concert goers are all QR crazy" shtick weakens my disposition.
The transformation of a humble logistic company's tracking device into a gig-goer's name badge should, by all records of such things, be exactly the kind of development I would welcome with giddy abandon. "It's the future!" as a wise man once said of garlic bread. But no, alas, I am not convinced. Not even curious - less so when faced with Heineken and their corporate video of doom. I've not been to any music festival, ever, so maybe I am wrong in cynically dismissing a QR Tent full of shoulder slapping, wide-grinned strangers as being contrived. Drugs can't have that much of an impact on people. ("Wow, this stuff is amazing, I'm totally baked and I've just unlocked the Munchie Badge on 4squre").
![]() |
This is the future |
I want to like the QR code in its new guise as hip and happening password to the future, it's just impossible to do so. It's an impersonal and impractical image of style which abandons pretence of function. The "concert friend hook up" wheeze is a desperate act akin to putting casters on a dead horse and pushing it around Ascot.