Wordy Birds

Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are

Original airdate: None

About one out of every eight interviews I’ve done has tanked. For whatever the reason–bad audio, boring guest or recoding error– I don’t run a show. Unfortunately, there is no audio associated with this post because of two out of the three reasons above. But the book was fantastic and it deserves some barefaced promotion.

‘Murketing’ is a term New York Times columnist Rob Walker coined to explain the fuzzy line advertisers are crossing to seep their products into our periphery… and then our pockets.

With the fast-forward freedom of DVR and daily newspapers breathing their last gasps, the advertising traditions of “yore” have gone flat. The way companies get our money is being reshaped and leeches into our lives in new and subtler ways. This goes way deeper than product placement in our favorite shows.

Rob Walker claims that we, as a culture, are more brand loyal than ever. We are not the intelligent, indignant, discriminating consumers we think we are. His book is filled with sociological examples of the evolution of products like Timberlands and Chuck Taylors. He states that we as a culture base large parts of our identity around commercial purchases, including ‘outsider’ purchases like PBR. He says that we are now doing  the promotion for corporate America and we’re taking pride in it… think about that Macintosh users. We are becoming the new marketing tool. Eeek.

I’m going to leave my adoration for this book here. You do your own work and read it.

Thanks for “tuning in.”

Liz

Buy the book:

Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are