3, the UK 3G network owned by Hutchison, has driven its bid for market share, with aggressive, price-led marketing - once they abandoned their initial, doomed video calling strategy. This has led to a customer base dominated by Chavs. Chavs is the slang term for mainly urban youth, with a penchant for designer clothes and sports wear. See here for Wikipedia’s study of the genre.

This has led to cultural phenomena like Happy Slapping, where some Chavs beat people up and film it, with their 3G video phones.

Now we have a new one, proudly extolled by 3’s UK marketing director Graeme Oxby:

“Our customers are embracing the chance to become paparazzi, sharing images and clips of celebrities straightaway, well before paparazzo photos appear in the papers.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Chavarazzi.

If you’re a “celebrity”, the price of that fame is getting increasingly high as far as your privacy is concerned. With everyone having a camera/video phone, you’re always going to be at risk of being photographed.

This is bad enough, but the Chavarazzi take photos and film in a very intrusive way - literally “in yer face”. This will lead to more and more famous people “doing a Sting” and abandoning public space altogether - Sting bailed out of a skiing holiday at Christmas as people were ruining it by rudely and intrusively taking photos of him and his family.

While new technology carries great and exciting benefits, there’s often a price to pay. In this case, 3’s innovative Moblogging facility, allowing you to share your thoughts and images while on the move, will be the bane of many famous people in the years to come.

How soon will we have a Government-led and celeb-supported backlash making the taking of Chavarazzi photos illegal?

Image from Wikipedia. I’ve spotted my first Wikipedia glaring error - the Chav doesn’t have a 3 phone, innit?

Original source: CRI Online via Moco News