De strijd tegen de dwang van de wereldmerken.
Ironic Consumption. No Deconstruction Required.
“Welcome to ironic consumption. The editors of the zine Hermenaut articulated the recipe:
Following the late ethnologist Michel de Certeau, we prefer to concentrate our attention on the independent use of mass culture products, a use which, like the ruses of the camouflaged fish, may not overthrow the system, but which keeps us intact and autonomous within that system, which may be the best for which we can hope.
Going to Disney World to drop acid and goof on Mickey isn’t revolutionary. Going to Disney World in full knowledge of how ridiculous and evil it all is and still having a great innocent time, in some almost unconscious, even psychotic way, is something else altogether. This is what de Certeau describes as the art of being in-between and this is the only path of true freedom in today’s culture. Let us, then, be in-between. Let us revel in Baywatch, Joe Camel, Wired magazine, and even glossy books about the society of spectacle [touché], but let’s never succumb to glamorous allure of these things.
In this complicated context, for brands to be truly cool, they need to layer this uncool-equals-cool aesthetic of the ironic viewer onto their pitch: they need to self-mock, talk back to themselves while they are talking, be used and new simultaneously. And after the brands and their cool hunters had tagged all the available fringe culture, it seemed only natural to fill up the narrow little strip of unmarketed brain space occupied by irony with preplanned knowing smirks, someone else’s couch commentary and even a running simulation of the viewer’s thought patterns. The New Trash brands, remarks writer Compton of kitsch lifestyle companies like Diesel, offer inverted commas big enough to live, love and laugh within.”