Code-X (11)

By: Joshua Glenn
June 6, 2014

Call this cultural category code: Luxury Angst.

Definition: American consumers (with low self-confidence and knowledge) are encouraged to defer to paternalistic European-style luxury.

Notes on this code: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the
next generation.” “Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie” — consumer is flattered to be addressed in French. BMW ads comparing the brand to, e.g., “most consecutive victories as a skipper in the oldest sailing regatta.”

*

SERIES INTRODUCTION | ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES

MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco