[DaveWalk]

To me, it's the end game for consumerism. The products themselves just get in the way -- the feeling is what you really want to have.

It's not new, I think. Just perhaps a little more blatant, and for more companies, than previously.

[Pulcinella]

It is at least the end game for marketing and advertising. E.g. Red Bull marketing wants to sell you the feelings of a life style, not a caffeinated beverage.

It’s definitely been around for a long time for some companies (I think auto manufacturers have been trying to sell cars = personal freedom and status as long as the car has existed) and you could argue that governments and religions have been doing it all of history, but I do agree that a lot more companies have been doing it the past several decades. Every damn podcast ad has to be about how a razor, mattress, or pair of underwear is a defining, empowering lifestyle choice.

[tomjen3]

I think there is a danger, because to many having a car is a person freedom (and a not inconsiderable one). If you are selling the benefits, selling the benefit that you can go anywhere you want with a car is a pretty obvious choice.

As for the style: conspicuous consumption may have been the first consumption, after basic subsistence.

[brett40324]

Yep, this. It's branding 101. Rolex is not in the wristwatch business! They sell luxury, period.

[yesenadam]

[Off topic] I'm a chess fan/player, and that 'endgame/end game' metaphor always confuses me (and a lot of players) and seems wrong. It seems to just mean endy things like result, final result, outcome, final phase etc.

In chess games, often there is no endgame - the game ends in the middlegame, or sometimes even in the opening. If there is an endgame, not uncommonly most of the whole game is the endgame, 60% or 70% or more.

In movies, almost every time you see people playing, someone moves and says "Checkmate", which is also, I guess, around the time meant by 'end game' - right at the end of the game. That's just not much like what the word means in chess. except, sure, it's the last of 3 phases (opening, middlegame, endgame).

[CydeWeys]

It's not widely perceived as a Chess metaphor anymore; like David S. Pumpkins, it's its own thing.

[Nasrudith]

I think that is a pitfall of specialization and fiefdoms actually. To focus on finer and finer details they must start to disregard or abstract away the other portions because otherwise they aren't specialists by definition. While needed at times it comes with disadvantages of focusing on the 'art' as it were as opposed to the end result and it crops up in all sorts of large projects. The car actually being controllable gets in the way of making it more powerful.

[retox]

"Sell the sizzle, not the sausage"