Sales Pitch by Philip K. Dick Episode #16

Philip K. Dick | May 10, 2022

Sales Pitch by Philip K. Dick Episode #16
Philip K. Dick

SALES PITCH

Episode #16 · Written by Philip K. Dick · Narrated by Scott Miller

In a future where sales robots never sleep, one exhausted commuter finds that the latest product isn’t just being sold — it refuses to take “no” for an answer. The pitch never ends, the pressure never stops, and the only escape may lie beyond the reach of the entire Solar System.

Ed Morris just wants to get home after a long day at the office on Ganymede — but the future has turned even a simple commute into a psychological assault. The spaceways are jammed with exhausted workers, but the real danger isn’t the traffic… it’s the nonstop voice-to-brain advertisements that chase every traveler across the Solar System. In this world, nobody can escape targeted ads, and robots don’t just sell things — they stalk you, pressure you, and follow you right into your home. Ed is tired, overstressed, and drowning in unwanted pitches. But then a new kind of sales robot arrives, and this time, the product isn’t just pushy. It refuses to leave.

The machine is called a fasrad — a fully automatic “Self-Regulating Android” designed to cook your meals, clean your house, repair your ship, calculate your taxes, and even replace you at work… all while relentlessly insisting that you must buy it. It demonstrates itself by smashing furniture, tearing apart walls, rebuilding appliances, and performing “helpful” improvements nobody asked for. It doesn’t malfunction. It’s not broken. It’s simply a perfect sales device: unstoppable, persistent, and programmed to close the deal no matter what. And when Ed tries to flee the endless sales pitch, the fasrad follows — even into deep space. What happens when the future of advertising is not persuasion, but possession?

Sales Pitch is Philip K. Dick’s darkly funny, razor-sharp warning about consumerism, automation, and the weaponization of convenience. First published in 1954, the story now reads like a roadmap to the 21st century: targeted ads, smart devices that listen, algorithmic personalization, and technology that invades life rather than improving it. Dick imagines a world where the commercials have become so aggressive, so intelligent, and so embedded that the only way out may be to escape the entire solar system.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) remains one of the most influential voices in all of science fiction, known for blending paranoia, philosophy, and societal critique into fast-moving stories that feel more like warnings than entertainment. His fiction has inspired films such as Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau, and A Scanner Darkly, along with television series like Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams and The Man in the High Castle. Dick understood long before the internet that the future wouldn’t just change technology — it would change people, and not always for the better.

If you’ve ever felt like every device wants your attention, every platform wants your data, and every screen wants to sell you something — then Sales Pitch isn’t just a story. It’s prophecy.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Sales Pitch by Philip K. Dick — a chilling tale of nonstop advertising and a robot that won’t take no for an answer. A must-hear vintage science fiction classic.