Bildfähig!

1

This advertisement for a mobile phone attracted my attention a few days ago. The phone is not so much designed as a technological product but rather as a result of artistry - i. e. made  with similar artistry as a handmade attire. In distinction from other cell phones this one suggests to possess „aura“: clearly, it is supposed to look like as if being made not in large computer driven production facilities but in a small workshop nearby.

In Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class, one finds the following observation about luxury clothing, which can be directly used for this ad: a member of the leisure class (to which the owner of the cellphone at a price of $2,000 certainly belongs to) tries to give the following impression: „It goes without saying that no apparel can be considered elegant, or even decent, if it shows the effect of manual labour on the part of the wearer, in the way of soil or wear. … [Any elegant apparel] not only shows that the wearer is able to consume a relatively large value, but it argues at the same time that he consumes without producing.“ (p. 170-1)

If one takes this into account and looks again at the image, one finds in fact that Veblen’s conditions for conspicuous consumption is fulfilled. The gesture of elegance Veblen talks about is convincingly portrayed here in the fact the man who owns the phone and also (no surprise) a Rolex watches the tailor working on his jacket. It seems likely that we are supposed to be convinced that the owner of such a cellphone can equally visit the workshop and assist the making of his own  cell phone. Therefore the primary promise of this phone is that any owner of this cell phone is in the position to contemplate somebody else working. And of course such work is neither dirty nor requires any machines.

The cellphone is meant for people who identify themselves with the desire to sit down in a workshop in which things are ‚still’ handmade, where walls are ‚still’ built brick by brick and jackets are ‚still’ adjusted stitch by stitch by the tailor himself and in particular where making something has no disadvantageous results such as waste or dirt. The promise is not simply a return to artistry and to the good old times, it is in particular the promise to have a specific position of power: to sit down comfortably and watch somebody execute that manual virtuosity with perfection and in the spirit of old artistry.

Apart from this apparent meanings of nostalgia and power that the company tries to convey with the phone, there are two more. To give it a round display and also Roman figures makes one think of an old pocket watch connected with a silver chain to the owner’s jacket or vest. In fact, the company’s website promises that materials were used that otherwise are found in luxury watches. Another reference is made there to luxury cars which supposedly use the same metals taken for the cell phone’s rotation mechanism.

But of course this cell phone is an industrial product and not manufactured by hand. The advertisement and the product itself nevertheless orchestrates such a meaning. The phone is therefore sold as an imaginary bridge to a position of power giving the possibility to own Rolex watches, handmade cars and the contemplative options described.  Somebody who really is in this position, does not need such an affirmation. He will simply buy such a phone that is in fact handmade being in the position to pay more. Such is a way to present more elegance than somebody owning this “auratic” cellphone: looking at products which seem to offer only functional advantages is thus highly informative to learn how social distinctions are constructed and communicated on the basis of consumer products.

Bildquelle: 1 Zeit Magazin, Nr. 49, 27.11.2008, p. 7

References

Theodore Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York, 1899. here.

More English posts: here.