Rob Walker keeps pumping out the good stuff. Check out his weekly column, "Consumed" in the NYT Magazine. Plus, for those who'd like to play the home game, there's the Journal of Murketing, a periodic email happening you can subscribe to here.
As a bit of a taste test, here's the most current JoM, reproduced in its totality to give you the full vibe. Perhaps Rob won't get all RIAA on our ass for the passalong.
Listen:
THE JOURNAL OF MURKETING, Vol. 1.7
January 30, 2004
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"Latinitas Fidei Consociat."
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Welcome to the Journal of Murketing, an irregular email to interested parties. If you have no idea what this is or don't want to receive it for any reason, send an email with "Unsubscribe" in the subject heading to murketing@robwalker.net, or an angry personal note to walker@robwalker.net, and the matter will be taken care of. You may cancel at anytime. On the other hand, if someone has forwarded this to you and you want to receive future installments, go to: http://www.robwalker.net/html_docs/jom.html .
Opening Theme: "King Kong," by the Kinks.
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[ ] The other day an article in The New York Times discussed how expiring U.S. textile import quotas might hurt the Cambodian garment industry. You're excited already, right? Just bear with me. The very quick version is that when these quotas end, it's likely that China will crowd aside many other nations that sell textiles to the U.S. But Cambodia claims it treats its workers better than China does, the article says: "Gambling on the social consciousness of American and European consumers, Cambodian garment makers say they believe they can carve out a role as Asia's labor-friendly producer." A Cambodian union leader named Chea Vichea, chimes in, "We are better than Vietnam and China - we have the right to strike, to negotiate with employers." Etc.
One reason this is interesting is that further down in the story there's a late-breaking development. "A few days after this interview," the article deadpans, "a gunman walked up to Mr. Chea as he was reading a newspaper and shot him three times in the chest, killing him. His death, presumed to be connected to his union work, is expected to cloud Cambodia's efforts to market itself as labor friendly." I'll say. (On the other hand, the Journal of Murketing has contacts all over the globe, so I asked an acquaintance who happens to be living in Cambodia about all this, and she said Chea's murder probably had more to do with political strife that has included three dozen assassinations and six months of effectively no government. That's a relief!)
Anyway, here's the other point of interest: Even under the best of circumstances, could gambling on the "social consciousness" of American consumers actually work? Can you picture yourself Buying Cambodian? It's certainly true that brands and businesses have been built on the idea of social responsibility, but most consumers pay no attention to the ethical backstory of a given product -- a sneaker, packaged chicken, a cup of coffee, a T-shirt, a diamond -- unless there's some big Kathie Lee Gifford-style blowup. I'm not throwing rocks by saying that: The prospect of doing all the research needed to buy only high-minded goods is significant, and in the end those goods tend to be more expensive than the socially indifferent offerings that dominate the mass market. Socially conscious businesses get press attention, but that's left me wondering about the mass side: What's the most popular but unethical product or product category around?
I also think it's fair to surmise that many socially conscious products have carved out their niche with consumers who happen to have the time to think about such issues and the money to pay a premium for socially "good" brands. Is ethical consumption itself a luxury? Maybe I'm totally wrong on this. I wonder you, thoughtful person that you are, make of it all . .
[ ] Apparently, there's been a viral rumor going around that I had entirely missed. People have supposedly been emailing what purports to be a Nike ad, showing bloody sneaker on the edge of a bombing aftermath scene. "You may not survive the blast," says the text by the famous swoosh, "but your shoes will." It appears that this is a well-produced fake -- another attempt to use Nike's brand attitude against the company. I'm mostly surprised that this seems to have been debunked even before -- as far as I'm aware -- anybody had raised a public question about it. See the "ad" and read the debunking here: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_nike_ad.htm
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FEEDBACK
[ ] Is it merely a coincidence that just days after Journal of Murketing No. 6 examined the unbranding of Howard Dean that his previously ballyhooed campaign guru Joe Trippi was replaced by an old-school political operative? Yes, it is merely a coincidence. It's a core part of the Journal of Murketing brand that it influences no one. (There is no Journal of Murketing archive, but our Dean item has been sort of reprinted here: http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2004/01/23/the_dean_the_dead.html .) We do, however, have this amusing comment from reader C.J. Aguilar to pass along:
"You're quite right to question the depth of (even while admiring the breadth of) Howard Dean's support, just as you are quite right to place the ultimate blame for his kamikaze spiral on a failure of marketing, i.e., the failure to effectively transform the brand of Dean-as-Kickass-Campaigner into Dean-as-Tenable-President. In this sense, Dean may deservedly go down in murketing history as the Jolt Cola of Democratic candidates: Everybody went out and bought one can of him after reading an article about him in their college newspaper, but there was never any real possibility that they were going to continue drinking him over an extended period. Coke and Pepsi are both perfectly tasty, and neither of them upsets your stomach or gives you night sweats.
"Still, I would argue that there's a good chance Howard Dean will end up leading the Democratic party to victory in November, even though he certainly won't be occupying the White House himself. This is because he served a very important purpose in this election: as the bolt of cosmic lightning that stirred up the primordial soup and created something resembling actual life in a dangerously moribund party. His candidacy, say whatever else you will about it, did indeed inspire a lot of previously uninspired people -- many of them young, many of them first-time voters -- to imagine that they could organize and work as one to stop the well-financed, all-powerful Bush juggernaut come November. In this way, the notion of Dean-as-Tenable-President might actually be considered to be what the German philosopher Hans Vaihinger famously deemed a "useful fiction:" that which we know not to be true or even feasible but which nevertheless comes in handy in helping us calculate and process reality."
I know Aguilar personally, and he's a dangerous man, so my only comment is: Good point!
[ ] Thanks to everyone who responded to my open question about Michelob Ultra several editions back, especially to the mysterious yet generous Woo, who passed along several useful articles and links. The most-spirited response award goes to Miranda B. who does not care for the beer's taste and it suggested it must appeal to those "who think that the Atkins diet is somehow going to work for their inactive, sedentary asses while they couch-potato it up watching must-see reality TV." I got a lot of other useful feedback, but I felt the phrase "couch-potato it up" deserved special mention. In any case, look for the Ultra installment of Consumed in The New York Times Magazine this weekend, just in time for the Super Bowl. If you want to, I mean. Speaking of which…
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Dept. Of Self-Murketing:
[ ] Recently in the NYT Magazine column Consumed:
Conspicuous Utility (1/25/04)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25CONSUMED.html?ex=1075611600&en=17f68350a73b7532&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
[ ] And on a similar me-me-me note: Either I should have done this earlier, or I shouldn't be doing it all -- it's either self-serving or polite -- but thanks to the following blogs for the kind words and/or attention :
www.abstractdynamics.org
www.missrepresentation.com
www.boatsagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/
www.pretentiouspartizan.net/blog
www.popfactor.com/tmftml/
Did I miss anyone? Also thanks to all who have forwarded the Journal of Murketing to potentially interested parties -- that is, in fact, the whole idea.
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[ ] Endorsements
1. "As You Can See From My Name-Brand Clothing, I Am Not Poor." A typically great Onion piece I'd overlooked: http://www.theonion.com/onion3604/name_brand_clothing.html
(Thanks, Kathy K.)
2. "Shades of Blue," CD by Madlib
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[ ] Links / Sources / Credits
The unsleeping Agenda, Breaking Brand News:
http://www.agendainc.com/break.html
Article on Cambodian garment industry
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/24/business/worldbusiness/24cambo.html?ex=1075525200&en=20f0e5c7eaa5362b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Trippi hosed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/29/politics/campaign/29DEAN.html?ex=1075957200&en=87ba7ba005bc058e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Not terribly illuminating discussion of "useful fiction:"
http://www.buildfreedom.com/bentham.htm
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Questions, comments, suggestions, requests, corrections, remarks, aspersions, and other forms of feedback are more than welcome. Send to walker@robwalker.net
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Closing Theme: "Tighten Up," by Archie Bell & The Drells.