Synopsis
Collects the author's commentary on such products as breakfast cereal, potato chips, beer, sauerkraut, crayons, and Lifesaver candies.
From the Author
Minutiae fetishism for consumer obsessivesInconspicuous Consumption is about paying attention to the details of consumer culture -- details that are either so obscure that we don't see them or so ubiquitous that we've essentially *stopped* seeing them. There's a bonanza of interesting products out there -- some strange, many exceedingly ordinary, but all worthy of closer inspection. The classic example is the Brannock Device, that fantastic gizmo they use to measure your shoe size. This product is classically inconspicuous -- everyone knows what it is, nobody knows what it's called, and most people, when asked about it, say, "Oh, that thing -- it's really cool, I just never thought about it before." Providing this sort of revelation is the essence of Inconspicuous Consumption.
