Marketing?
Check it:
So marketing basically takes everything we've learned about human behavior and it uses it for capitalistic gain. This is evil, yeah, but there is also this: marketers talk openly about things that people are usually afraid to talk about. They talk about why some people need to be seen with Starbucks cups and why others are okay buying from the dented can section in the grocery store.
Last year I read a really amazing study by Douglas Holt, it was about cultural capital. Beyond regular class divisons of income, there are levels of cultural capital that people can possess. One particularly interesting case for me are the chefs who work in upscale resturaunts. During my years as a waitress I observed these types and I took it further by reading several books about it (Anthony Bordain wrote the best one, Kitchen Confidential, he's the Jack Kerouac of food culture). These people are often rough around the edges and proud of it, using language that you'd hear in biker bars, cracking risque jokes, etc. But they'll turn around and create an intricate dish that uses techniques and ingredients that are from all over the globe. The people on the other side of the plate are the ones who are considered sophisticated, they're the polished erudite ones, not the guy in stained chef whites who is downing his 9th iced tea of the night.
And my grandfather. Not a day of college, but one of the smartest and most dignfied people I know. Where do you draw the lines for these anomalies? No one really tries to, it's one of the last areas that people are uncomfortable talking about. Well, marketers do, and I have to commend it, even if the end result is a manipulation.
This post brought to you by my Consumer Behavior homework and Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and Other Creatures Unique to the Republic by Robert Lanham, author of The Hipster Handbook.
Respek,
Cirilia
So marketing basically takes everything we've learned about human behavior and it uses it for capitalistic gain. This is evil, yeah, but there is also this: marketers talk openly about things that people are usually afraid to talk about. They talk about why some people need to be seen with Starbucks cups and why others are okay buying from the dented can section in the grocery store.
Last year I read a really amazing study by Douglas Holt, it was about cultural capital. Beyond regular class divisons of income, there are levels of cultural capital that people can possess. One particularly interesting case for me are the chefs who work in upscale resturaunts. During my years as a waitress I observed these types and I took it further by reading several books about it (Anthony Bordain wrote the best one, Kitchen Confidential, he's the Jack Kerouac of food culture). These people are often rough around the edges and proud of it, using language that you'd hear in biker bars, cracking risque jokes, etc. But they'll turn around and create an intricate dish that uses techniques and ingredients that are from all over the globe. The people on the other side of the plate are the ones who are considered sophisticated, they're the polished erudite ones, not the guy in stained chef whites who is downing his 9th iced tea of the night.
And my grandfather. Not a day of college, but one of the smartest and most dignfied people I know. Where do you draw the lines for these anomalies? No one really tries to, it's one of the last areas that people are uncomfortable talking about. Well, marketers do, and I have to commend it, even if the end result is a manipulation.
This post brought to you by my Consumer Behavior homework and Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and Other Creatures Unique to the Republic by Robert Lanham, author of The Hipster Handbook.
Respek,
Cirilia