Mass marketing and those of us in the middle
So I was reading a piece on China in USN&WR, and a couple of sentences caught my attention. The upshot of said passages was that manufacturers are now producing goods for the Chinese consumer, to fit their tastes. The fact that Chinese consumers are tying their tastes to those in the West as China has tied the yuan to the dollar only intensified a sense of discomfort.
I was a short-haired head-banger who graduated in the top ten percent of my high school class; I didn't live the life, I just liked the music. My friends and I watched in dismay as MTV replaced Headbangers' Ball with yet another three hours of Yo MTV raps, and shook our heads in bewilderment at the popularity of Madonna and the Eurogliders.
I have a relatively short torso and arms so long that I get road rash on my knuckles if I slouch. Tell me where I can find a shirt that both completely covers my arms and doesn't hang down to my knees or flow like a fucking tent -- certainly not at Walmart or Target.
I've already mentioned that I was a big fan of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer -- but none of the products advertized on that program held the least interest to me. Meanwhile, I've seen American Gothic, The Tick, and Wonderfalls get pulled off the air, and I've heard that HBO pulled Carnivale -- all shows that I (and my wife) really liked.
I am one of many victims of mass consumerism. Between sizes, demographically inappropriate in entertainment choices, I am doomed to have my tastes completely ignored by the major producers and distributors, and be forced to pay twice as much for stuff that fits me and my preferences. And with several, I don't know, trillion foreigners set to add their tediously conformist voices to those listened to by the mass market, my situation (and that of those like me) can only get worse.
A reasoning person must conclude that the first evil is found in demographic and actuarial analysis, where individuals are destroyed and replaced with composites of superficial details. If I give my age, my ethnic heritage, my education and income level, my birth order, my places of birth and residence, my preference in music, books, movies, etc. -- for a market analyst or an actuary, that's all there is to know. On that basis, they feel they can determine my future, or what I am willing to buy. And they're almost always wrong. But I can never correct them, because I am never heard: only my age, ethnic heritage, etc.
I'm sure folks smarter than (and not as smart as) I have written much more erudite and eloquent diatribes about this sort of thing, so I'll just give up now. I just wanted to throw this out there as one of the unforeseen consequences of the rise of a Chinese and Indian consumer class.
I was a short-haired head-banger who graduated in the top ten percent of my high school class; I didn't live the life, I just liked the music. My friends and I watched in dismay as MTV replaced Headbangers' Ball with yet another three hours of Yo MTV raps, and shook our heads in bewilderment at the popularity of Madonna and the Eurogliders.
I have a relatively short torso and arms so long that I get road rash on my knuckles if I slouch. Tell me where I can find a shirt that both completely covers my arms and doesn't hang down to my knees or flow like a fucking tent -- certainly not at Walmart or Target.
I've already mentioned that I was a big fan of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer -- but none of the products advertized on that program held the least interest to me. Meanwhile, I've seen American Gothic, The Tick, and Wonderfalls get pulled off the air, and I've heard that HBO pulled Carnivale -- all shows that I (and my wife) really liked.
I am one of many victims of mass consumerism. Between sizes, demographically inappropriate in entertainment choices, I am doomed to have my tastes completely ignored by the major producers and distributors, and be forced to pay twice as much for stuff that fits me and my preferences. And with several, I don't know, trillion foreigners set to add their tediously conformist voices to those listened to by the mass market, my situation (and that of those like me) can only get worse.
A reasoning person must conclude that the first evil is found in demographic and actuarial analysis, where individuals are destroyed and replaced with composites of superficial details. If I give my age, my ethnic heritage, my education and income level, my birth order, my places of birth and residence, my preference in music, books, movies, etc. -- for a market analyst or an actuary, that's all there is to know. On that basis, they feel they can determine my future, or what I am willing to buy. And they're almost always wrong. But I can never correct them, because I am never heard: only my age, ethnic heritage, etc.
I'm sure folks smarter than (and not as smart as) I have written much more erudite and eloquent diatribes about this sort of thing, so I'll just give up now. I just wanted to throw this out there as one of the unforeseen consequences of the rise of a Chinese and Indian consumer class.
posted by heavynettle at 22:47
2 Comments:
Last time I was in Botswana, I was amazed to discover the Speed Metal is a huge national obsession there. And not just as an import, there are many local bands dedicated to the genre. An NPR story a year or two ago on this showed that despite the fad more or less dying out in the States, the genre seems to have become a permanent feature of the Botswanan national psyche. Now, I doubt 1 in a 100 U.S. speed metal rockers have ever heard of Botswana and you can be damn sure no U.S. record company ever marketed that genre there, since the primary U.S. consumer of speed metal is a teen-age, white, suburbanite. And yet, there it is.
Culture is a virus, and mutates and passes from person to person in strange and unpredictable ways. This is why I don't think of M&M as any more of a posure or culture thief than Kathleen Battle.
But I hear what you're saying about not being an "off the wrack" kind of guy in clothes or other consumerables. As a left hander, I am reminded of my own permanent outcast status everytime I struggle with a jar lid or have to turn the key in a lock in a totally counter-intuitive direction. It's a hassle, but overall I think it's done me more good than ill, except when I have to sit on my hand to keep myself from eating with it at a communal meal anywhere that camel might be on the menu.
Oh, you're a leftie. The Latin word for left is "sinister". Oh, yes. I know your kind.
Actually, my son is a leftie, I think. Although I've read that handedness actually changes during the first few years of life, so it's not clear this early, the lad has shown a consistent preference for left-hand dominance.
Of course, he's a light-skinned Hispanic, so he's on the outs even with the Hispanics. And he's not circumsized, so he's just some kind of freak.
Anyway, I just added adsense on this site, and I the first time I brought it up, the little Google search engine didn't have any associated ads. Couldn't match the content, you see. Isn't that just priceless?
Post a Comment
<< Home