Osler's Razor

So... Burger King made this ad which is mostly about net neutrality (the regulation that directed internet providers to treat all content the same, which was reversed by the Trump administration earlier this year):



First of all, why does Burger King care about net neutrality? It probably doesn't much, as an institution, but they have hired some sharp marketing folks who have figured out that this is a good way to get in front of millennials (and note that in the ad, many of the customers are from that generation).

The other thing is that, probably unintentionally, the ad makes points on both sides of the debate. Sure, the Whopper fast lane seems really inconvenient. But it also is a terrible business move; any rational burger seller would dump that plan immediately-- and that is what opponents of net neutrality say about that issue, too: that no business would "throttle" content egregiously, because that would undermine their own profits.

I'm for net neutrality. That's because I know that corporations won't abuse it in the overt way that we see in the Burger King ad, but in more subtle ways. Why? Because they hire the kind of psychological experts that Burger King did when the came up with a plan to engage millennials....