Douglas Holt and James Twitchell
Yo Doug,
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StumbleUponYou are right. What an article!
Yeah, what are needs? Well, there are not many: eat, sleep, reproduce. Everything else is desire.
Ours is a world of wants, not needs. For better or for worse.
Here's how I ended Adcult:
The idea that advertising creates artificial desires rests on a wistful ignorance of history and human nature, on the hazy feeling that there existed some halcyon era of noble savages with purely natural needs. Once fed and sheltered, our needs have always been cultural, not natural. Until there is some other system to codify and satisfy those needs and yearnings, advertising, and the culture it carries with it, will continue not just to thrive but to triumph.
I'm not sure I understand what you're asking for. Oh, I think I got it. You are referring to that squib I referenced by Jim Fowles on "Advertising's 15 Basic Appeals" from yesterday where I repeated his list. And the list was all phrased in terms of "need" for this and that. Doug, I just picked up the word "needs" from his article. But they are not needs; they're appeals.
And they are appeals, incidentally, very close to what is found in high culture. I wonder if you did an inventory of the novel, for instance, if you wouldn't find it pretty close. I think humans have about 20 Ur-stories they like to tell, and they tell them over and over. They used to be in the province of myth, then literature, and now they are part of commercialism--the lingua franca of stuff. Religion grabs them, too.
While I'm pondering this Skullbonia question (and playing golf), do me a favor: tell me what you mean by "consumption and branding is all about politics." I've never gotten any traction with politics as a word or a meaning-making format. In fact, no kidding, when I hear the word, I reach for the remote. It means what?
How would you explain Skullbonia with politics? To me it has to do with adolescent male aggro rituals.
'Til tomorrow,
Jim
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Reader Comments From The Fray
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: Let's talk about coffee. Joseph Britt., below, was just one of many--follow the thread, and consider the question of tipping the barista. He still had time to discuss milk, here, too. And Brendan Herlihy took on ice-cream here. Neill Hamilton is looking for more "dissent, anger, blood feuds... I want the people writing in the Breakfast Table to open up life long vendettas" here (he always is, he's the Breakfast Table's official trouble-maker), but Richard Walrath enjoyed the banter: "it's almost like being there with the third cup of coffee."]
We're really talking about two different things here, aren't we? Coffee, and then all the froofy coffee-influenced liquid dessert-style beverages that take up most of the space on coffee house menus. I have nothing against the latter (because making fun of them is always a good time), but coffee is a really serious subject. If you're going to drink something nearly every day, it might as well be good. This is why I've never understood all the sneering condescension directed at Starbucks. Pre-Starbucks, most coffee served in public places was awful--you were ahead of the game if you ordered came out hot, caffeinated and with no taste at all. OK, most coffee served in public places is still awful, but with Starbucks you at least have the choice of having a good cup of coffee.
I confess I think Starbucks is slipping, based on extensive research I've done at the Minneapolis Airport. They used to offer a rotation of different coffees--Sumatra, Mocha Java, even New Guinea--but now seem to mostly serve up a couple of blends with names like "European" and "Christmas." Talk about your brand marketing. Also they routinely serve the coffee so hot you wonder if there is something wrong with the water they're using.
--Joseph Britt
(To reply, click here.)
Maybe the students in Mr. Twitchell's anecdote couldn't tell good poetry from bad without guidance, but this doesn't strike me as being universally true. Poetry isn't my thing, but music is, and I have no trouble separating the good from the bad using only my own ears. If there wasn't something intrinsic in good art, we wouldn't, over time, have come to a general agreement about the relative worth of, say, Mozart vs. Salieri.
--Chloe Pajerek
(To reply, click here.)
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