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Vice Blog

NEW YORK - IT'S NOT ABOUT THE NAME, NEWS


Every time someone names their heroin 9/11 or Bin Laden or Obama, the news goes, "Tut tut, can you believe the audacity, capitalizing on our suffering and/or our president?," as if the average heroin buyer is going to be like, "Ooh Obama, I'll pay extra for that bundle," or some non-drug user is going to be like, "Harry Potter heroin? Well shit, I guess I might as well give it a try." The news thinks these drug stamps are some kind of disgraceful marketing ploy, like it's a pair of sneakers, whereas actually branding heroin is like branding cattle. If the brand gets identified as consistently good it may sell better, but nobody's buying it purely on the design (except maybe rich daytrippers). In his mind some junkie sees an empty bag and calls his guy, "Hey, you got any of that Obama smack I heard about? No? Forget it, I'm calling someone else. [click]" The news is dumb.