Well, after last week’s posts here on optimism, and pessimism, and optimism vs. pessimism — it’s looking pretty grim out there! As I type, the Dow has fallen 600 points below the 10,000 mark. Other lousy economic news abounds, and the presidential race is disintegrating into bitterness and tomfoolery.
The NYT’s story on how consumers are faring is not exactly shocking: “Full of Doubts, U.S. Shoppers Cut Spending.” Looks like consumer spending for the third quarter will be down 3 percent, per projections, “the first quarterly decline in nearly two decades.”
“The last few days have devastated the American consumer,” said Walter Loeb, president of Loeb Associates, a consultancy, who said he worried that the constant drumbeat of negative news about the economy was becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. “They all feel poor.”
No surprise, then, that the post here last week that got the most response was the pessimism one, which also happened to ask: “Is Main Street a bunch of spoiled overspending babies?” More specifically, I brought up some comments from a Sunday chat show in which some observers contended that one of the issues America is going to have to work through is that many Americans have been living well beyond their means for years, and in denial about it.
The comments were mixed, to say the least. However, I wanted to follow up in a general way to make a broad point that’s not aimed at any of those comments specifically. Read more
SUBCONSCIOUS WARM-UP
Wearing a jacket like the one Michael Phelps wore can’t make you a faster swimmer. Or can it?
This week in Consumed, a look at the possibility of, in effect, a subliminal placebo. Recent research suggests that non-conscious exposure to brands can influence not just purchase decisions — but actual behavior. That research focused on the Apple brand and creativity. And maybe it suggests that buying a Speedo jacket like the one Michael Phelps wore isn’t quite as useless a move as you might assume.
“The trick is, the first time you wore the warm-up parka,” it wouldn’t have any effect, one of the researchers says. “Because you’d realize, Oh I’m being ridiculous.” Wear it often enough, though, and you’ll probably stop ruminating about it. “Below the level of conscious awareness, you’d put the jacket on, and what’s activated in your mind is maybe Michael Phelps going very fast,” he continues. “And those things could actually kick up your motivation to go faster.”
Read the column in the October 5, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.
Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. The Times’ Consumed RSS feed is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.
To make a point about Consumed that you think readers of The Times Magazine would be interested in: “Letters should be addressed to Letters to the Editor, Magazine, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. The e-mail address is magazine@nytimes.com. All letters should include the writer’s name, address and daytime telephone number. We are unable to acknowledge or return unpublished letters. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.”
I like reading other sites’ month-in-review posts, so I thought I’d try one, too.
Actually though … I’ll open with a question: If you have a site, what do you use to track your stats? I’m using a WordPress plug-in that I’m not that crazy about. I’ve never really cared about stats before, but if I’m going to do this, maybe I should use some service that’s more detailed and accurate. Recommendations welcome.
Okay so on we go:
* The most commented-on item of the month is this one, Pessimism (Or: Is Main Street a bunch of spoiled, overspending babies?). These are also the best comments of the month, I think, and I’m still mulling them over and hope to have more to day on this subject soon.
* The most “active” (most views, I guess) items were this Q&A with Harriete Estel Berman, and this post Bias, rhetoric, and cognitive dissonance. A different plug-in (ShareThis) indicates that the Berman Q&A is also the “most shared” item of the month.
* The item I thought would get more comments was this one on Expressions of musical fandom in the digital era.
* The item I thought would get the most attention and “sharing,” but didn’t, was this on 3M apparently biting an ad idea. Or at least, it didn’t get a lot of attention here. Consumerist did a post about the same thing a few days later that probably drew more traffic than this site gets in a month. (That’s not in any way a knock on Consumerist, which I am confident came to the topic through its own channels, not by reading Murketing.com. I’m just a little disappointed that their 9/15 post got a lot of traction and my 9/12 one got none — for instance, about a thousand Diggs for them vs. zero for me. Ah well!)
* My personal favorite posts that haven’t already been mentioned were this excellent Q&A with Little Friends of Printmaking, and this bit of Mad Men Musing: Changing Times.
The playlist for September is after the jump if you’re interested. Read more
Brandweek said recently (9/15/2008 issue, but I can’t find a link to the story) that Target is making Domo a centerpiece of its Halloween promotional efforts.
Erik Nakamura declares Domo is now dead, backs up his argument with pictures.
[Domo licensing was the subject of this July 22, 2007 Consumed.]
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