A favour you would not recommend

A man in Abu Dhabi opens a small online shop selling phone cases. On launch day he messages everyone in his contacts. Could you leave a good review? You do not need to have bought anything. Could you share the link in your family group? Could you ask your manager to order a batch for the office?

He tells himself it is harmless. Nobody has to agree.

That line is how people talk themselves into it. It treats the request as free, as if the only cost were the few seconds it takes someone to decline. But the cost was paid the moment the message arrived.

His cousin reads it and understands exactly what is being asked. Not help, quite. A small dishonesty, done on his behalf and for his benefit, on a day when he is too excited to notice what he is spending. A colleague he barely speaks to gets the same message and understands she is one name on a long list.

There is a simple test. Would he advise his cousin to review a shop she had never bought from, if the shop belonged to a stranger? Would he tell a friend to push an unknown seller into the family group? If not, he is asking them to do for him what he would warn them against doing for anyone else.

That is where something gets lost. The friendship rested on the idea that each of them would look out for the other. The message quietly announces that today, he is looking out for himself.

The launch will be forgotten within a month. The message will be remembered for much longer.