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.

OMG. I was coming on to scream about ‘lip’! I will not purchase any product described this way.

YANBU OP. At all. Wanky bollocks.

What are you on about? A seamstress in France with her own shop is probably making a mint. She's not a nine year old Indonesian child working 18 hours a day for two pence.

It's all about companies having "mission statements and values". The only mission statement a company should have is the bottom line everything else falls within the legislation.
It just reminds me of Coutts bank and Nigel Farage fiasco.

It’s been this way since Marie Antoinette, hasn’t it?

Aristocracy romanticising the bucolic life turned into Arts and Crafts Movement and now the MC has its own tone deaf version.

"But could you also please support the local people grafting to keep independent business alive".

The 'independent businesses are more worthy than chain stores' narrative, gets to me like artisan wankery gets to the OP. I live in a town with few chain stores - it prides itself on its independence. And tbf, we have great butchers. But we also have the hard nosed independent business owner who felt that Marcus Rashford should support her go fund me, to buy the building her business was located in, because she'd supported his campaign to feed children! It's sometimes just more of the same wankery.

I blame innocent smoothies - they started all this provenance bollocks, despite putting mass produced knotted hats on their overpriced drinks!

Is it fetishising poverty or promoting small-scale artisanal production?

I agree that all of this kind of thing is largely marketing guff. But I'm in favour of consumers moving away from mass produced goods where possible.

I’ve clearly spent too much time on mumsnet, because I find anything proclaiming middle-class-ness irritating now. You either are or you aren’t, no matter how hard you try to prove or disprove it. Everyone you meet can probably pigeonhole you pretty accurately anyway.

You could almost say it is a fetishisation of the working class

The word is artisan. 😉

Ha, I noticed the same! I love how the OP said the strap reminded her of her 'old horse's reigns'! Being middle class complaining about being patronised for being middle class while simultaneously showing how compassionate you are towards the working class has to be peak Mumsnet. I love it.

Being a bit of a cynical and a deeply unpleasant person, I think some people are just fuckwits that fall for bullshit that's peddled by arseholes to screw more money out of them.

"Navy Blue Wool Hat" - £9.99

"Navy Blue Wool Hat Dyed By Artisans In Scotland" - £19.99

"Navy Blue Wool Hat Dyed By Artisans In Scotland. Made From New Zealand Sheep Wool" - £29.99

"Navy Blue Wool Hat Dyed By Artisans In Scotland. Made From New Zealand Sheep Wool Sustainably Sourced By Collecting It From Free Range And Organic Prickle Bushes Of Sheep Paddocks." - £39.99

And for the dumbass men, chuck in some hint that a woman was involved somewhere:

"Navy Blue Wool Hat Dyed By Artisans In Scotland. Made From New Zealand Sheep Wool Sustainably Sourced By Collecting It From Prickle Bushes Of Sheep Paddocks And Spun By Female Naked Virgins." - £109.99

I don't know about fetishism of poverty. I think it's that practicality has big kudos now so putting an artisnal spin on it or more glamorous because itsfrench.

Hush was always a favourite until they sent me the most bizarre booklet with poetry and a bunch of unreadable bilge. I put it straight in the bin. I thought hush were oversized and comfy clothes with a lot of leopard print. I don't need they'd philosophy on life.

Entertaining and intelligent thread, thank you. I agree with much here.

@IndecentFeminist Wtaf is right and @FelicityFlops you should be ashamed of holding such bigoted views.

"The softness of the strap reminds me of my old horse's reins long ago."

That's definitely making it in to their next marketing blurb

Fetishisation of poverty has been going on for decades. There’s been a lot written on the subject.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8hnnQrL57hM&pp=ygUhTWlkZGxlIGNsYXNzIGFuZCBwb3ZlcnR5IGZhc2hpb24g

https://theeverydaymagazine.co.uk/opinion/youll-never-live-like-common-people-the-fetishisation-of-being-working-class

https://issuu.com/leahmcewan/docs/trend_analysis_final

The language and tone might not be your cup of tea, but I don’t think that going into detail about the manufacturing process is a fetishisation of the working class - it’s talking about a heritage craft and higher quality materials, which contributes to the higher cost of the item. When a consumer spends more than average on a product, they generally want to know why.

Yes, it's a glorification of an imagined working class, tenderised and packaged up for MC consumption.

I think many of the ‘working class’ might consider this ‘wankspeak’

But, yes. I agree. It’s the greenwashing that annoys me. In your example they are shouting about their eco credentials but shipping wool in from South Africa! 🙄

Thanks for this thread, OP. I agree with you and especially the PPs who are tired of hearing about the provenance of their food every time they turn around.

I know I am lucky that I can afford to spend more to take ethics into account when choosing the small amount of meat that I eat, and this meat tastes better. But I don’t need to discuss this every time I go to the butcher.

I especially don’t need dreary monologues from the wait staff about the provenance of every morsel when I am out to dinner. When I go to a naice restaurant I assume they have sourced carefully. Just let me enjoy the results.

Definitely irritating but it was ever thus. Les Belles Images (De Beauvoir, 1966) came to mind when I read your post.

Well they are pants the UK isn't just Southern England!

Agree OP. Without all their drivel though how are we meant to feel smug about all our ethical purchases? Us middle class consumers are an easy target because we’re so up our own arses.

There is a problem with the idea that a developed provenance or a localised purchase means that the purchase is of higher ethical value and that it has no forced labour involved or no exploitation.

No matter how wanky the product sell is, I always assume that there is some element of sinister or sub optimal circumstance that led to it arriving at my purchase. I am a die hard cynic when it comes to the idea that there are items that can be bought without some level of “problem” attached to them. However this is a wholly uninformed view and aligns nicely with my general cynicism.

"What really bothers me is the ever so quaint way in which they fetishise poverty. it is like cosplaying at being poor. Just awful."

Not read the whole thread.
My guess is that people who are extremely wealthy (including "old money") often see themselves (even if only momentarily) as how their money/priviledge has backed them into a corner. Yes they life in an idillyic silent views-for-miles polution free corner of the UK where room /space and nature for miles is a given, yes their troubles are very much first world (paying bills? is that a real problem?) but they are lonely and they have an irk that the real hustle of life is going on "out there".

Out there in their mind being where-poor=people-are.
So they want to retain all the comforts and dip into the gritty on the edge for a bit of fun/the experience and to feel like a person of the world. Viewing it from the comfort of their castle it looks quaint and cute and they want to try it out.

Its not new. I give you:

What is particularly cringe is when people (maybe some on this thread) who on any objective measure are very comfortable taking into account where they live and what they do for a living/intheir spare time, start to protest things like "but I have not been able to do x,y,z this year so that would not be me" (xyz being things like ski in the resort we normally go to etc).

Glad I’m not middle class. It all sounds like pretentious hard work x

It really is. If I hear from one more friend about how fortunate they were to have time to patch up Lulu Belles socks before packing them for their ski trip I might vomit. I also get to hear their competitive charity shop rants about who spent less. All over a £4 Cortado in the local overpriced coffee house of course. Such fun.

But are these people the real middle class or just wannabes? I think the wannabes are worse because the true middle class are what they are; it’s the people who are working class (like me) who are desperately striving to be something they’re not that makes me cringe. I think “listen to yourself; who the f do you think you are”. It’s embarrassing and most of these pretenders don’t know the first thing about being classy. It’s all so desperate. Rant over x