The schlub of the earth

[jouis_sens]

A television commercial on an airport screen mid-week treated me to some of the boldest and most unapologetic classism in recent memory:



Quickly now, run along and fetch yourself one of these devices.   Surely you're not some fat, greasy, lumpen who does not possess The Very Latest Electronics.   What are you, some kind of animal?

Comments

[signsof]

I am a fat (though not greasy) lumpen. Imagine my joy that the new LG will transform me into a thin, hip, pretty human. Thank you, Verizon!

All the cool kids are doing it.

[signsof]

Do you see this as also tied in to that wider trend of seducing the proles further into debt (that Walmart decor piece last week)?

Re: All the cool kids are doing it.

[jouis_sens]

Yes, it's clearly part of that trend, but the truly perverse part is that it also works simultaneously on the inverse, viz-- the target demographic here is the lower strata, that eternal selling of bourgeois Being to the poor, but it's also, at the very same time, _the bourgeoisie_: by constructing this striking visual contrast of the LG-less fat, schlubby prole next to glossy, perfect elegantsia, it reassures the glossy strata that there is indeed Us and Them, and you are one of Us not one of Them. This kind of intense, unremitting reification is of course in a sense the very essence of marketing, so this is the farthest thing from an 'isolated incident', but I can't recall any recent example that was quite as unabashed as this one.

[daoinesidh]

Consumerism consumerism consumerism ... the preeminent god of our system in the U.S., and a deity who has a disturbingly powerful influence over the minds of so many, but especially our youth. And yes, as signsof has pointed out, this ad is especially rife with the horribly cruel message of "all the cool kids are doing it" ... something that has of course been a prevalent part of Western cultures for some time now, but which has become wrapped up with all the worst of the worst of late! I simply cannot keep up with all the latest trends these days, because they are insidiously (or perhaps not so insidiously now) linked to this technology that changes so fast that I get a migraine just thinking about it. I have a laptop, we own one mobile phone (for business and emergencies), and I have a iPod thingamagummy (NOT an iPhone thingamagummy), which I OCCASIONALLY use to check email when in Vancouver, BC. Other than that, I have a house full of books and lovely antiques, and a LAND line phone (the latter said in shocked tones by my 20-

[jouis_sens]

Oh of course you're a non-entity: people over 40 don't exist. I love the old manual typewriters, but I'll go you one better - I still sometimes write by hand, on big yellow legal pads, a fact my recent publisher found, in his words, "fabulously eccentric." It is only in such a world as this that the most basic, unadorned acts read as "eccentric."

[daoinesidh]

Oh, I am called eccentric all the time (out loud to my face, or whispered behind closed doors and cupped hands in hushed tones) ... my dearest too ... we are that eccentric older couple who still rents and doesn't OWN, and has just too many books to be decent ... oh dear! :) Not only are we both over 40, but we are not land barons, which makes us double non-entities in the good old U.S.A ... sighs

[daoinesidh]

Well, now the dratted thing won't let me edit the comment. I suppose there is some solace in the fact that I admitted my grammatical error! :)

[paracelsus]

They didn't let him complete his thought! "If you don't set that down I WILL take it and shove it down your throat you tedious imbecile. God, I only mentioned their stupid phones out of a dearth of stimulating topics for conversation. They're still talking? OK I gotta stop coming to this cafe. Never liked their stupid orange cups anyway."

[jouis_sens]

It would make me indescribably happy to watch him beat them senseless with one of those orange mugs.

[dulcemia]

Wow, that's overt. That is o. vert. And of course "do not sit that down": he's lower class so naturally he'll steal your fancy new phone the second you turn your back! Where the hell was Seth on this, asleep on the job? (Oh woops, forgot, it's about +class+, which isn't anything +important+...) How do you suppose the casting call for this thing read... ? "Wanted: overweight, unkempt, crooked-toothed, poorly-dressed white male who can gaze longingly at shiny objects. Same call, young, slim, impeccably-toothed, pretty boy and girl, vaguely modern-global-chic a plus"?

[jouis_sens]

The really chilling thing is that yes, what you mean here as astute satire is probably quite similar to the actual casting call. Important, too, that he's singled to their coupled - that always-present bassline of capitalism, desire. He's undesirable and alone now, but if he buys that phone, women will suddenly flock to him! How frayed, how worn, that old, old song, but the band keeps playing, because the people keep dancing.. good lord, but I do unintentionally wax metaphorical in the wee, exhausted hours..