Peak middle class marketing

[kindlypudding]

I am in this demographic, but it fucking irritates me.
I suppose it could be called consumer class appropriation, how so many goods are aimed at the MC with taglines including factory workers, craftsmen, etc.

I look at a woolly hat, typical shop that I like and have purchased from, and there's a foot long description about the wool process. OK, we are the main target for ethical, climate related messaging, but it's beginning to feel cheap, worn out and fucking patronising.

Here's one from Navy&Grey -
"The wool arrives in Scotland by boat where it is spun and dyed on the banks of Loch Leven in Kinross by Todd & Duncan, one of the finest Scottish Mills which has been spinning yarn for 150+ years.
85% of the dyes used by Todd & Duncan are organic and the water used for washing and dyeing the wool is cleaned and purified before returning to Loch Leven to be used again".

And here's another from Toast -
"Established in 2009, Bleu de Chauffe, the name taken from French workwear jackets worn by 19th century factory workers..."

You could almost say it is a fetishisation of the working class, or at least pre war. It supposes I am thick headed, desperate to show my privileged, ethical plumes. I chose the bag quoted above because I love it, it has served me well and the softness of the strap reminds me of my old horse's reins long ago. This squarely places me within the target market, and whilst a lot of these products are beautiful, the cloying, oozingly false pretensions about the environment leave me cynical.
It's like when you read a Guardian article about capitalism and clothes, and all the commenters claim to only ever buy second hand and patch up their own repairs. This is great, but along come san actual poor person who has been doing that anyway for years. It feels like just another road to excessive consumption, but with a more insidious intent.

If so, I know where you’re coming from actually. Like when a gift is marketed as “perfect for mum” and I inwardly sigh at the easy sexism, but equally think “it does look like something I would like though”

It's been going on for years but sometimes, as with these descriptions, it's more obvious than at others.

The cottage garden was a middle class invention allegedly mirroring the gardens that the lower classes had outside their "idyllic cottages". The truth was that if you were working class the chances of you being able to grow lots of pretty flowers in your garden were laughable. Every so often it's "cool" to be working class which is why you have the likes of Mick Jagger or Damon Alban speaking in mockney accents. It's patronising and ridiculous and makes me love Common People (Pulp) so much because the ever wonderful Jarvis gets it.

No, just musing really. I love his writing and creative work, and to a good extent, his politics. But he came from a very cushioned background (like my cat), so in many ways he lived in a world of the imagination. With good intent, I hope, as I can't quite compare his ideals to contemporary clothing brands!

I actually think it’s trying to say “don’t worry, you’re not like those other shoppers who just buy a jumper willy nilly. You care about your jumper and if you have to buy a new jumper, at least you know it’s not just mass produced rubbish. Don’t worry, you’re different to all the other middle class people”

Maybe this yarn of sheep don’t live on the mainland?

Imagine the come down after an apocolypse

The sheep, the sheep..!

As the parent of two disabled children, did you actually mean to use the disability slur word ‘moron’?

I think it's more that they suppose the MC want everything to be done by "artisans," who are usually eking out a living because they cannot afford to charge a reasonable rate for the labour they are putting in, because that would mean even fewer customers.

I am from the Lower Middle Class, and you, OP, sound as if you are more Upper Middle Class? Some of whom seem to understand that we are all human beings, especially the horsey UMC. The Middle Middle Class tend to look down on the LMC. (I am, of course, generalising and exaggerating for effect.)

Actually, I myself am a bit of a sucker for an artisan product - and occasionally treat myself

Another posturing, patronising pile of shite at the guardian -

There was a young fulla in our office, adopted me to be his mum on day one. At some point he asked me if I could sew a button back on his shorts. Said nope, but I'd teach him how. Started him off, showed him how, then supervised whilst he finished it. Boss of the department walked past whilst we were both at my desk hunched over the shorts whilst he sewed and I watched, and clearly thought it was hilarious.

Young 'fulla' my dears, what a scream.

To my mind we were LMC with cash. But we came into contact with all sorts.

i do like a well made thing, and I am passionate about ethics and equality. But I don't need patronising or lengthy prose about the wool and workers. When I buy decent meat it is good enough to print 'organic' or whatnot, I don't need a fucking novel. It is, plain and simple, shitty, pretentious marketing. It certainly does invade food, and it's the same spiel.
We are all, whatever our roots, supposed to spend ourselves to death, and reproduce offspring for the (good) cause.

The whole ethical, environmentally conscious thing was long ago appropriated as more of a fashion and lifestyle thing, which renders it neither in reality. I say that as someone who cares about both

No one's lifestyle is sustainable unless everyone can afford it. Sustainability is a collective thing, we succeed, at a global level, or we all fail 🤷‍♂️ It's not something capitalism can grasp, with its foundations rooted in extraction, extreme hierarchy and exploitation of the many for the benefit of a tiny minority

What article is this? I can’t find it by searching any of the words in your quote and I’m intrigued as to the context of “fulla”.

I'm totally with you here @Flickersy.

Fucking colourway.

And I particularly detest "a jean" 😤

Well that’s totally against the home spun grain for a start. What the fucks wrong with Scottish sheep?

Here it is

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/dec/06/darn-it-five-writers-try-to-banish-their-fast-fashion-guilt

The 'fulla' thing is from a drop down discussion about haberdasheries.

I mean I love the Guardian but it tests my patience.

Ctikey op, talk about overthinking stuff!

@kindlypudding you sound like a hoot! I’d love to sit next to you (and your cat) at a dinner party 🤣
Agree with you on all levels!

Aye, i'd better get a job

How do you know @Speedweed has two disabled children?

I was in Bath today and had a full English breakfast in a cafe . The description of how the bread had been created actually irritated me 🤦‍♀️I just found it patronising.

There is a gift shop near me that markets their wares as a "carefully curated collection", as if it is a gallery of things to look at rather than to buy. Pure wankery.

From a lower middle class family. Ended up in poverty myself some years back. When you're buying reduced food from tesco and doing Lidl shops, frugally rinsing every penny you're lucky to have, wishing you could just bung in whatever food you actually want and then your middle class family member starts telling you how to properly do the Aldi runs for maximum savings because you're clearly doing it wrong if you're still broke because they can go to M&S for the posh stuff..... God, those were harsh and frustrating times. Happy to be working class and feel like more of a regular person. My extended family have no idea what it's like to not have the choice to shop elsewhere on a whim.

It really became a thing when I was younger, for a certain demographic to begin practically making shopping at aldi or Lidlington a sort of lifestyle choice that they banged on about, it was almost hilarious hearing them all going on about this amazing cheap place they'd discovered... Hated to tell them I'd shopped there most of my adult life and it was hardly some new thing.

i actually loathe the MC lurve-flap about lidl and aldi. Different thing if you can't go elsewhere, yes.

It reminds me of grooming (not horses, but vulnerable people)

This and the softness of the horses reins made me laugh. Also I don’t know what bucolic is so I read bubonic