There you were thinking that seeing celebrities with ten-piece sets of Louis Vuitton luggage, or people with more money than style attired in outfits emblazoned with Versace medusa heads, was merely an assault on one's fashion sensibilities. But it turns out that fashion emblems may be worming their way into our…
The Wall Street Journal's glossy "Modern Wealth"-themed magazine WSJ is debuting September 6. Just in time for your curiosity to have been thoroughly piqued by the smartified explorations into fashion and luxury commissioned to fill up the heaving style issues of the New Yorker and New York, T Magazine and Vanity Fair…
Rob Walker, who writes the "Consumed" column in the New York Times Magazine every weekend (a sweet "job"), has a new book out in which he draws the sad—but unavoidable—conclusion that we are all a bunch of sheep blindly obeying a world of marketing messages. You think you're able to use your education, morality, and…
It's going to be a warm and sunny weekend, which is a good thing considering that you're not going to be indoors reading the Sunday New York Times. If the Big Three sections (Arts, Books, Mag) are any indication, you'll quickly scan the sports scores and then head out to the park for some ultimate frisbee or whatever.…
Every weekend, Gawker will analyze a consumer product in a sufficiently probing—that is, harder probing than Chuck Klosterman but gentler probing than Malcolm Gladwell—way. We will describe it a little bit, then write a few "on one hand"/"on the other hand" statements, then call it a day. With apologies to Moli re,…
Slate's Rob Walker follows up on The Great Gawker Puma Ad Controversy: "Did Puma make a mistake by resorting to heavy-handed squelch tactics? If it really wanted these images to fade quickly, then yes."
Puma's problem [Slate]
Another game of Which Is More Annoying: P-Diddy jet-skiing on the French Riviera in his bathrobe or a public company CEO buying a $15,000 umbrella stand? According to the NYT Magazine's Rob Walker, P-Diddy wins hands down. The public has more tolerance for conspicuous consumption when there's some pretense that it…
