I happened to go into a local party supply store, and they had a huge display of Halloween decorations and costumes. What I found rather bizarre was that in addition to all the skeletons, monsters and ghosts, there was a new character - the alien. It would appear that "The Grays" have become another icon in the cast of Halloween characters. It stuck me as kind of odd - I didn't remember any alien stuff from when I was a kid, but now there seems to be a good quantity of glow in the dark alien window inserts, alien masks, alien heads - even little alien head votive candles!
So what does this all mean? I guess on the heels of the X-files the alien has now become a stock pop-culture icon. Perhaps the supernatural elements are slowly being supplanted by a new cast of characters - ones that reflect a fear of technology rather than nature. The Evil Robot, the Insane AI, and the Genetically Engineered Mutant may follow on the heels of the aliens as Halloween icons for the next millennia.
One interesting note. In Whitley Steiber's Communion, one of the chapters made an interesting argument that the old european legends of the "fairy folk" and the "wee people" bore a certain resemblance to the alien abduction stories of today. There were certain elements in common - lost time, magic wands/alien probes, odd sexual encounters. If the fairy legends of yesterday have much in common with the alien abduction stories of today, then it would seem that a traditional element of superstition - the fairy/elf - has been updated into a more plausible form for us jaded moderns.
The Boobification of America
No, this isn't about the popularity of Professional Wrestling...
Actually I have to credit my girlfriend with this observation. She's always been a rather "busty" gal, and she has always had problems finding bra's that fit her in conventional clothing stores. But in the last year she's noticed that Victoria's Secret has begun to manufacture bra's in much larger sizes. Her theory for this: the widespread popularity of breast implants. With the numbers of large-chested women being increased though artificial means, the clothing market is apparently responding to this transformation in the shape of the average American woman.
I don't see the popularity of plastic surgery as a particularly new phenomenon - there is rich tradition of aesthetic body modification among traditional peoples, as well as more modern forms such as the Victorian obsession with corsetry. The human impulse to modify the body to fit a cultural ideal of beauty seems fairly constant - it's just that now we have new tools to make those transformations. No doubt in years to come well have nanotechnologcial body morphing kits or something.
But this is the first time I've seen any evidence that the popularity of breast augmentation has been responded to by the fashion industry. I guess one would have to talk with the Victoria Secret executives to know for sure, but for now the "Boobification of America" seems to be a plausible hypothesis.
The Future of Retail: Build-A-Bear
A month or two ago flipped through an interesting book - The Experience Economy (I forget the authors, sorry). The book argued that the next phase of the service economy would be in the packaging and sale of an "experience" to customers. In essence, a store or environment should be so interesting and appealing that you would be willing to pay admission in order to enter the store. I guess Disney World is the best example of this. So rather than selling just a product, you sell an interactive experience.
There is a store at the Tyson's Corner Mall that seems like a great precursor to what these guys are talking about. It's called Build A Bear, and all they sell are stuffed animals. The neat gimmick is that you get to actually participate in the construction of your stuffed animal. First, you pick out an animal skin from about two dozen sizes and styles, then you go over to a big glass box filled with circulating stuffing. Then an attendant fills the bear with stuffing to your specification, right in front of you. Next there a few bins of extra stuffing labeled "love" "friendship" and the like, so you can add those extra ingredients to the bear. Then, you go to the station where an attendant makes the last few stitches to sew the bear up. Finally you go to a computer terminal, where you enter in the name, address, birth date, and parent of the bear - and out comes a printed birth certificate. And of course on the way to the registers there are all the bear outfits and accessories.
It's real neat and interactive. And what a great business. They only pay for raw materials!! - all assembly is done interactively in the store. They don't carry finished bears as inventory. And best of all, they capture the marketing information for every one of their sales though the whole "birth certificate" scheme. Brilliant! I talked to a manager and apparently they send out coupons on the bears birthday and stuff like that. The children in the store were just entranced by he whole process, and I have little doubt that they left as very happy little bear parents - and no doubt eager to have the experience again. Hell, I was even tempted to join in the fun.
But anyway, this type of interactive retailing may be a key weapon for retailers to keep them from being totally crushed by online retailers. Already Borders and Barnes and Noble seem to intuitively realize this - by turning their stores into a singles joint for bookworms with the coffee bar and all that, and I would imagine that they will soon expand these types of social offerings given the competition they get from amazon.com. Other industries will no doubt soon have to move into full-blown interactivity, but I haven't really figured out the likely candidates yet.
The Future of Diet Food: Low-Carb
You may have noticed that the latest diet fad are "Protein Diets" - the Atkins Diet, the Zone Diet, the Sugarbusters diets, etc. Protein diet books occupy 3 of the top positions in the NY Times bestseller list in that category - so it's a pretty big fad. There was even a recent report on Dateline about the popularity of these diets.
I'll attest that the diet is damn effective - I spent April, May, and June on the Atkins diet, and I managed to lost 30 pounds in three months - without a lick of exercise. It's not like I was starving myself either - sausage and cheese for lunch, and steak, poke, or sashimi for dinner. (hey I was living as a bachelor...) And diet Barq's Root beer by the gallon.
The basic theory is that by reducing the amount of carbohydrates you ingest, you basically trick the body into consuming it's reserves of fat. There is a scientific explanation involving the role of insulin in the storage of fat, but that way too tedious to get into.
But it does work, and lots of people are doing it.
What I found interesting is that all the "diet" foods on the shelves are useless to the Protein diet people. Most of these diet products cut fat, but they stick in more sugar and carbohydrates to get the fat levels down. The Protein diet people want almost no carbohydrate content - lots of fat is fine as long as the carb count is low.
So there is a huge untapped market for new diet foods out there - foods specifically for protein diet people. Given the abundance of artificial sweeteners, these shouldn't be that difficult to manufacture. And the demand is certainly there - ask around and you will no doubt find someone doing a protein diet.
One side effect of the popularity of protein diets may be to counteract the increasing popularity of sugar in the American diet. Protein diet people come to loathe sugar in the same way that conventional dieters fear fat, so if enough people do the diet, perceptions of "sinful" foods could change.
Written by Mark Justman Copyright 1999 Posted 10/01/99 http://go.to/futureplex
