Sloppy's Journal: Are you a cultist?

Heh. Watching a Frontline episode called "The Persuaders" and it's about advertising. Douglas Atkin, an ad strategist, was working with a focus group:

I was at a research facility watching eight people rhapsodize about a sneaker. I thought: where is this coming from? This is, at the end of the day, a piece of footwear. But the terms they were using were evangelical. So I thought, if these people are expressing cult-like devotion, then why not study cults? Why not study the original? Find out why people join cults, and apply that to brands.

Then we see taped interviews, where blurred-faced focus group members discuss their interest. We have a good chuckle at their expense, because, of course, we're better than them. There's the Falun Gong member. Then WWF Wrestling Fans: "Most of the people I discuss the WWF with, know that it's not a sport. It's a masculine ballet."

Then we drift into "cult brands." Volkswagon Beetle owners: "If you're a smart kind of individual, then that's what you drive." Macintosh users. Deadheads. Linux Users.

I feel compelled to mention then I was watching this on my Tivo(TM), of course. You should buy one, then you'll be cool like me.

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Re:Of course

[queenofthe1ring]

And also, We are all Kosh.

Beetles are For Smart People?

[the_mad_poster]

Heh.. ummmm. Smart people drive Beetles? I always looked at the (modern) Beetle as what would happen if a marketing executive decided to combine the ugliest, slowest, least convenient aspects of all of the other various cars on the road and then painted it funky colors and tried to convince people to buy it at an inflated price because it's "cute".

Apparently I'm just dumb though :/ I'd drive an old beetle....

I knod of always thought the smartest people on the road were Volvo drivers.

To Provoke a Response

[sanctimonius hypocrt]

The clever thing VW did was not make a car nobody hated, but one that a few people loved. As a corollary, I guess somebody somewhere loves the Aztec.

i love frontline

[asv108]

Last night was great because I got a double dose of PBS with Frontline and Nova. The interesting part of the focus group segment on cults was the appearance of the people in their groups. The mac people looked like your typical metrosexual, clueless, mac people, while the linux people look like insane zealots that came out of a cave.

Re:i love frontline

[John Harrison]

I recently started downloading TV shows with bitTorrent instead of taping. The adds are already gone, you get rips from HD, and they have Battlestar Galactica from the UK. Unfortunately the site I use www.tvtorrents.net doesn't have any PBS shows. Too bad.

In any case I am a Mormon, Firefox user (and preacher), Red Sox fan, and probably a few other things that someone might count as a zealot.

I'm not a cultist. I use Linux.

[eugene ts wong]

Seriously, though, lately, I've found that a lot of people tend to cling to their brands so much. It becomes more apparent when they talk about it. The more that they deny it, the more that they try to justify it.

As for me, I'm not denying anything. In fact, I'm using it to draw lines between everybody. After all, if we consciously try to erase all lines and unconsciously draw them again, then 1 of the opposites [and hopefully this opposite method is the correct method :^)] must be to consciously draw line