r/Anticonsumption • u/MsWrite • 1d ago
Society/Culture $450 White Lotus suitcases and Swarovski Minions: everything has been turned into a Happy Meal toy
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025/04/the-pop-culture-branding-explosion27
u/wins0m 1d ago
It really feels like this whole engine of consumption is collapsing in on itself, I see so many weird "cross-overs" like some rapper selling me a shoe in a commercial that is part of a SaaS platform with a disney+ exclusive film tie in for the new movie about a commercial product from the 80s.
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u/Jazzlike-Lunch5390 1d ago
Nah. It’s turned into “who tf is actually buying all this shit” times?
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u/NyriasNeo 1d ago
There are 22M millionaires in the US. Sure, $1M is not that much money anymore but at least this group would not think twice about dropping a few hundred dollars on something they mildly like.
The global north is very rich, compared to the rest of the world, and there are plenty of people who would spend. I am not even counting the buy-now-pay-later crowd.
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u/Jazzlike-Lunch5390 1d ago
Do you have a stat on 22M millionaires in the USA. Because that feels a little large when looking at recent income breakdowns.
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u/NyriasNeo 1d ago
Page 30 on the table. The actual number is 21,951,319. This is 2023 statistics. The number typically goes up because they have access to the capital market and that tends to increase in value, despite what happened in the last few days.
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u/NyriasNeo 1d ago
"Will people see the value of a symphony orchestra that isn’t playing the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack?"
Yes, last time I was at the symphony for Beethoven number 5, the hall was like 70% full. So certainly not Top Gun Maverick numbers, but enough to keep it alive.
But is Beethoven number 5 that much better than Top Gun Maverick. Sure, it is classical. Sure, it is high brow. But Beethoven is as much branding as Top Gun. It *was* the top IP in its days even when the term was not invented then.
In fact, the orchestra played a piece from some no-name modern composer in the beginning before the main beethoven event. They had to do that because if not, no one is going to stay to listen to some no-name composer's piece without the catchy opening.
My take is that this kind of behavior is unavoidable because human anchors and reinforces cognitively. Going high brow on classical music and michelin stars do not solve the problem. The same behavior exists but just on a smaller scale. Heck, people frocked to Thomas Kelly too in the food world. Better yet, how about the restaurants of the Iron Chefs (I have been to one, pretty good though no michelin stars)? That is a perfect marriage of culinary and pop culture.
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u/ExplanationLow6892 1d ago
I just saw a Squid Game Fisher Price Little people toy set. Felt so wrong.