The Party Was Better Than the Spec Sheet

At some point Google decided the best way to sell a phone in Berlin was to build a fake mall. Not just a pop-up—a "Sci-Fi Super Mall," billed as an AI playground where curious visitors could discover the wonders of the Pixel 2. They brought in Boiler Room, seeded the guest list with influencers and YouTubers, and watched the filtered Instagram content arrive on schedule, because of course it did.

There’s a specific texture to these events. The product is always secondary to the aesthetic. Everyone photographs the space more than they use the thing being sold. Phones get held up to take pictures of other things. It’s tech companies running a passable impression of an art world opening, and I honestly can’t decide whether that’s cynical or just contemporary. Maybe those are the same thing now.

The Pixel 2 is interesting hardware on its own merits—Google’s most considered attempt at building a phone that competes on camera and AI integration rather than just mimicking the iPhone. It didn’t need a sci-fi mall to explain that. But somewhere in the gap between what the thing does and the elaborate theater required to sell it, something genuinely weird is happening to consumer culture, and I find that more interesting than any spec sheet. I remain personally committed to a finely calibrated system of carrier pigeons and handwritten notes, but that’s a different conversation.