Catalog Living

Very cool. There's kind of a meta thing going on here — in just about every catalog, advertisement or commercial, there's a world that's evoked — a lifestyle, a whole set of referents — and that's what really gets you to buy the product. "I want to be part of this rich/educated/young/adrenalin filled peer group because it will validate me and my place in society. But we never think explicitly about the people who ARE in the ad. The beautiful young J. Crew people on the sailboat. The grizzled young guy hauling equipment through the rubble in the Dodge Ram commercial. Gary, the refined older gent who sits in the armchair with his bowl of rocks. That's what makes this so rich. You could write a novel about all the Garys, about the J. Crew set, all living perfect lives in that alternate universe.

Some of it is also calling out the stacking of status objects into senseless piles:

Completely. This is the greatest thing ever.

This is pretty funny!!!!! yet so true!!