WK6 Material culture: Everyday life

 

There are several products which play a major role in my life which I don’t usually think about on a deeper level at least not to the extent one thinks about notions such as life, death and meaning. However, these seemingly trivial micro-things which are recursive in our day to day lives actually have a deeper meaning because they are some of the key defining features of our daily lives, and as all great things are made, they have to start with small and insignificant elements first. Things that we do and use are not negligible because they amount to changing our behavior patterns and perception of things later down the road.

It is in this sense that I associate Laura Oswald’s opening quotation: “Consumers shop for meaning, not stuff.” Personally, one of these products which I seem to be mesmerized by are Oldspice deodorants. For some odd reason they seem to stand out for me among all other men`s products. I am well aware of the twisted Oldspice TV commercials but I cannot safely say that these commercials are what made me opt for this brand. The design of the packaging itself makes me eager to buy it every time. I can’t shake the sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with the way in which it stands out from Rexona, Fa and Nivea. All of the previously mentioned brands seem to go for the sports aesthetic with dark and blue colors. Admittedly they do smell good, however their packaging is not really appealing to me. It seems that the whole boyish sport aesthetic is a bit cliched and seen one too many times. While Oldspice goes for more a traditional and vintage look, perhaps that gives it some apparent depth. A few other examples of products which are my common necessities include Nike shoes and Megle milk. Although worlds apart, they are similar in that they are more aesthetically pleasing for me than their competitive brands. Nike has always been my go-to shoe brand, and I have gone through quite a few pairs of sneakers, including not just lifestyle sneakers but also sport specific shoes. Back when I used to train basketball I always opted for Nike although Adidas was just as sturdy. The situation is the same today. I am into weightlifting and I am saving up some money to buy Nike Romaleos weightlifting shoes instead of the more affordable Adidas Leistungs just because the Nike offers a better overall design in my opinion (the way the shoes are laced, the heel design, and the way that the midsole merges with the toecap), regardless of the fact that both are used by top performance athletes and approved in Olympic weightlifting competitions. As for Megle, I simply love the tall Tetra Brik design with the blue color, simple yet effective, it makes the milk appear cold and refreshing. In addition, there is something about the name as well, I guess I am attracted to foreign products. All of these things are marketed by experts who take things like pack material, shape, haptic cues, graphic schema, layout, color gradation and so on into consideration as Arning points out in his article.