Emotion for Sale

so...there's this new store thats opened on the drag here in austin, called "Diesel." First of all, its the epitomy of the trendy-fucks' store. It goes beyond anything ive ever seen. And ofcourse, its mucho mas expensive. A pair of jeans, prefaded, pretorn, preshited-in runs around 70 plus buck-a-roos. And off the subject, every man who works their is a clean cut homosexual and then a 1 or 2 pretty alterna-girls. The thing that sets this store apart from Gap, Tylers, PAcific Sunwear, Old Navy, Urban Outfitters, is that they take the 'thrift shop look' to a whole new dimension, and it sucks. Trying to turn the longtime trend into something 'trendy' and expensive isn't cool, but i dont think this store, nore anything else, will be able to eliminate the thrift-shop/cheap-shitty look. Now...for why im writing about this stupid store. They have this advertising campaign which is fucking amazingly absurd. They claim to "sponsor" certain emotions and ideas, such as 'happiness' 'freedom' 'dreams' 'pleasure' 'romance' etc. Initially, this pissed me off. Seeing such a blatant example of advertising pushing the idea that "consuming brings 'happiness' 'pleasure' etc." However, today i visited their website (sponsoredbydiesel.com). Here it is obvious they are making a joke of consumerism. They have this scary as fuck, very punk-clad, red-mohawked, mascot/clown, named Donald Diesel...


who is the leader of a sort, of 'Happy Valley." This happy-valley is said to be a place where "happiness leeps and sadness sleeps, and the only emotions allowed are happy ones" and of course, as all good emotions now are, its sponsored by the 'good' people of Diesel. "So bring a smile on your face, and a major credit card in your pocket" it encourages. By being so flagrant, they seem to be taking sides with consumers' annoyance with unyielding advertising in the world today, by poking fun of it. The whole thing still promotes happiness from consumerism (which i feel is somehwhat immorale, and all too american) but I think that they do it in such an absurdist way, that it makes me chuckle at their attempt. I still hate the fucking store, no doubt. Perhaps very younger kids would take it seriously.....and follow suit, by paying for a pair of pant that a clown with a red-mohawk has taken a shit in. So in conclusion, i hate that a trendy-as-fuck store has come up with a really good ad campaign.....