One oresumes he’s trying to appeal to their sense of pity. “Won’t somebody think of the poor, dead, orks?”

To be fair, way way before anyone was remotely concerned about climate change, I worked at the Press Association in the UK - where, stereotypically enough, the IT department was relegated to the basement next to the PA Photos wire-photo department (IT in the basement because, well, normal - photos in the basement because photo archives with glass negatives literally weigh tonnes.)

Anyway, the arrival of the first picture of people (ideally attractive female students) ‘cooling off’ in a fountain, or the annual “look, it’s a beach, and there are people (ideally attractive, female) on it” photo was practically the first sign of Spring. Up there with the inevitable “students (ideally attractive and female) celebrating their A-Level results” photos; markers of the passing year that are as reliable and timeless as the blooming of snowdrops or the falling of leaves.

Which is not to say that we haven’t monumentally fucked the climate. But wire-photo cliches are not really that compelling as evidence.

I try to always be nice to retail staff, because I remember well the sheer misery of having to stand sandwiched in a too-small window display cabinet, scraper in one hand and bottle of weak vinegar in the other, scraping the bloody advertising stickers off the glass (that were stuck on with a glue stronger than cement) with a roasting hot halogen floodlamp about 1" from your head, just because a new range has come in… Particularly soul-destroying if it’s that time of year when the same 5 royalty-free Christmas songs are on permanent loop in the background.

And yeah, you make a very good point. Sheer size/weight and cost of shipping would have been a huge chunk of the price of those old TVs! Not to mention the cost of healthcare for all the staff who put their back out dragging the damned things to and from The Cage… ;)

TVs were always cheap compared to cost to make the things - it’s not just the “oh, they have advertising now” thing.

Source: I worked in electronics retail in the late 80s/early 90s, and in one of the world’s largest consumer electronics firms when my career proper started.

The TVs in the window of the local electronics chain store (or in Walmart) were sold at practically zero margin, or more often than not at a loss. The retail chains would basically hold a gun to the CE companies heads and tell them if you’re not willing to sell at a loss, nothing you make is going in the window display, or worst case we’re not selling you at all.

The retail chains didn’t care because all their profit was in selling accessories and unnecessary extended warranties. The CE companies hoped that they could make it up by selling you the more expensive model they actually made a profit on once you were in the door, or by selling you a VCR or whatever as well.

This is why the TV companies were always looking for a “next big thing” (flat-screen, ultraflat, widescreen, HD, 3D, 4k, 8k…) to differentiate the “next model up”, which is to say the model the store would actually allow them to make a profit on.

This particular race-to-the-bottom mutually assured destruction business model is also the reason there is practically no consumer electronics manufacturing left in the West, of course. And why manufacturers grasp at stuff like advertising.