This is a bit of a strange critique. The publication is a long-form literary magazine, kind of like the Canadian Harper's. Neither of the writers is a brand person, they're both independent small scale writers, and if you check their past bylines none of them seem to overlap with the kind of thing you're talking about. No product is linked, this isn't like one of those GQ pieces where they want you to click through and buy the thing. Mostly it's sort of abstract and introspective, about processing feelings, and less about any kind of product.
Let's say, hypothetically, that Big Consumer Culture wanted to Give You Permission To Buy Stuff, does it seem like this is the venue and manner they'd use to present this idea? The article discusses coverage of minimalist house makeovers as fueling the minimalism they think is in decline: wouldn't the people trying to push consumer culture use the same coverage of maximalist house makeovers more effectively than a small long-form essay in a Canadian literary magazine? Wouldn't they have a thing they want to sell? Wouldn't there be graphics or pictures or video engagement? Wouldn't it be attached to some kind of promotion?
It's sort of hard to unpack the who, what, when, where, how of your pitch here.
"What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? Because he has decided that he wants the commodity called locomotion more than he wants the commodity called music? Not altogether. He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars.
The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom. He appeals perhaps to the home instinct which is fundamental. He will endeavor to develop public acceptance of the idea of a music room in the home. This he may do, for example, by organizing an exhibition of period music rooms designed by well known decorators who themselves exert an influence on the buying groups... Then, in order to create dramatic interest in the exhibit, he stages an event or ceremony. To this ceremony key people, persons known to influence the buying habits of the public, such as a famous violinist, a popular artist, and a society leader, are invited. These key persons affect other groups, lifting the idea of the music room to a place in the public consciousness which it did not have before... Meanwhile, influential architects have been persuaded to make the music room an integral architectural part of their plans with perhaps a specially charming niche in one corner for the piano. Less influential architects will as a matter of course imitate what is done by the men whom they consider masters of their profession. They in turn will implant the idea of the music room in the mind of the general public.
The music room will be accepted because it has been made the thing. And the man or woman who has a music room, or has arranged a corner of the parlor as a musical corner, will naturally think of buying a piano. It will come to him as his own idea."
I don't have any strong opinion on this, but the fact that you're arguing against the idea that all consumer culture got together and decided to exclusively advertise their new plan through this particular article is not an direct or productive reply.
I agree. The article is practically an ode to consumerism. Much better to find the middle ground of making do with the things we already own, not throwing everything out a la minimalism, or buy buy buy a la maximalism so trumpeted here.
Let's say, hypothetically, that Big Consumer Culture wanted to Give You Permission To Buy Stuff, does it seem like this is the venue and manner they'd use to present this idea? The article discusses coverage of minimalist house makeovers as fueling the minimalism they think is in decline: wouldn't the people trying to push consumer culture use the same coverage of maximalist house makeovers more effectively than a small long-form essay in a Canadian literary magazine? Wouldn't they have a thing they want to sell? Wouldn't there be graphics or pictures or video engagement? Wouldn't it be attached to some kind of promotion?
It's sort of hard to unpack the who, what, when, where, how of your pitch here.