'Tis the Season to be Brand-y

The other day, my good friend and I decided to go out for a Christmas dinner. To further feel the Christmas spirit, we decided to enter a few shops, if not to purchase anything, then to look at their decorations, or criticize their products (we find a certain pleasure in finding faults in items we can’t afford). As we browsed a certain shop, in which items looked particularly pricey, we noticed that they were also particularly fake!

It makes me wonder. Are people that conscious of brands that they would go to the extent of buying fake merchandise just to fit in, or in other cases, to stand out? At the risk of sounding like I’m anti-society (which I am actually starting to become), I think I answer my own question, when I look around.

I fail to understand the glitz behind these brands. Sure they look good. And after various discussions with friends who understand , I am also told that it gives a person pleasure to own something exclusive. But to spend that much money, money I could use to feed myself for the whole year, certainly does not sound appealing to me.

My friend tells me there are two types of people- those who can afford high-class brands, and those who can’t, and go in for the knock-offs. This saddens me even more, to think that we can define people in only two categories. In my head, I could define them in so many different categories, which reinforced my belief that individuality was given some importance in the world. But I am slowly starting to think that all of that is in my head.

Sure, there are people out there who don’t care. To an extent, even I don't. But in this day and age, where big brands are the carnivores, and tiny little shops are the deer, grazing peacefully, unaware of their impending attack…we the people who don’t care seem to be a dying breed.

Comments

Popular Posts