Strange new products for strange descriptions

Example: Star Trek Pizza Cutter

The website strange new products has short articles about an eclectic mix of products in the following categories:

• auto
• clothes
• food
• gadgets
• gags
• health
• house
• media
• personal
• pets
• sports

The link: http://www.strangenewproducts.com/

The products range from useful to ridiculous (or so I thought). My students had a good time looking through the site for the products they found most interesting (for whatever reason), and I had the idea of having them rate the products they chose according to the most and least useful products.

However, the students tried to convince the rest of the class that the product they chose was a good idea, and the more ridiculous the product, the more creative their persuasive speech was!

Two examples of "more useful" products:

1) Kidz-Med non contact thermometer
http://www.strangenewproducts.com/2007/11/worlds-first-non-contact-thermometer.html

Canadian woman who reviews the product on her blog:
http://www.noliesplace.com/kidz-med-veratemp-non-contact-thermometer-review/

The product on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z78bqZAeiQ

2) Phantom Frames: LED bicycle frames that light up at night
http://www.strangenewproducts.com/2013/12/phantom-frames-led-bicycle-frames.html

And two products I thought were ridiculous, but students tried to convince me otherwise:

Star Trek pizza cutter:
http://www.strangenewproducts.com/2010/09/star-trek-pizza-cutter.html

Turn your ipod into a sex toy:
http://www.strangenewproducts.com/2006/03/turn-your-ipod-into-sex-toy.html

Products can also be rated according to other criteria; for example, funniest, strangest, most likely to impress, most embarrassing, etc.