Do Not Press the Red Button review

Mark Mackay

We review Do NOt Press the Red Button, it's the ultimate in negative suggestion silliness for the iPhone

Published on Oct 30, 2009

Negative suggestion can be a powerful thing. Especially when we're younger, someone telling us not to do something because something bad will had happen builds up a curiosity that leads to a practically irresistible urge to do just that.

The classic example of this and one that entertainers such as Derren Brown have used in his psychological TV tricks is 'the big red button'.

It's appeared in everything from Warner Brother's cartoons to comedy movies and now it's on your iPhone.

As the title hints at, the interface consists of a birds-eye view of a pretty standard-looking cardboard box and a large, round red button.

At the bottom is some text that reads 'DO NOT PRESS' in capital letters. The first time we fired up the app we decided not to give in to our child-like urges to push the big red button in all of its shiny splendor.

However after some time, nothing happened and as a result, our urges got the better of us. And so we did it. We pushed the button.

The text underneath then changed to '*ahem* DO NOT PRESS' and one more press will get you the text '...you pressed it again. Okay punk, press it again'.

Once more press will get you 'Yeah that's it. Come on, one more time' followed by 'again' and 'do it'. A few more presses and the text then changes its tune and tries desperately to stop you pressing the button.

These first few examples pretty much set the premise for the entire app. You press the red button and get more more dialogue that tries just about every trick in the book to get you to stop pressing the button.

There are promises of prizes, hidden invisible buttons that you'll never find unless you stop pressing the red one and you even get attempted guilt trips to stop you pressing it.

At multiple points, more than one button will appear in a bit to confuse you but there's always one in there somewhere that will get you on to the next bit dialogue.

The chat is often very funny and had us laughing out loud at the silliness of the app. After all of the build up we were half expecting there to be some kind of prize at the end.

However after about 15 minutes of entertainment the app goes back to the beginning and starts again.

At the time of writing the Do Not Press the Red Button is free and well worth a download if you're only after a giggle.