Avid aspirationals on the stairway to status

This puts a heavy burden of honesty on advertisers of products or services, and puts a similar burden on those who blithely accept what is told or implied to them without checking thoughtfully. Too much of the marketplace believes: “she’ll be right” while the subtlety of suggestion is able to re-inforce this idea.

There are many purchasers who are more astute than the unthinking aspirationals, and who accept economic restraints realistically, make do with what they have, live happily, and resist instant gratification. These folk dream of improving their lifestyle, but only when they can genuinely afford to … their patience is well-practiced.

For Darren and Darlene Dork however, there is not too much concern about going into debt to avoid any waiting. Neither is there concern for the outdated idea of not living beyond their means - what they want is what they are going to get! A noisy, powerful car to gratify the ego; a new giant plasma to create a cinema in their McMansion.

Personal panache within that group often is generally of low concern in an indifferent conformity of slovenly appearance. Healthy minds in healthy bodies? They just don’t care.

Gross fat women parade rolling, track suit-clad bums, boobs bulging beneath singlet tops, stringy unkempt hair, and down-turned mouths.

Men in shin-length shorts flaunt beer guts as some rite of passage, baseball caps with sunglasses perched on top, little beardettes on multi-jowled faces, and grunt inarticulate phrases about beloved “spawt”. Their kids often carry the creative names of their parents’ aspirational branding: Jaidyn, Kayleen, Bredan, Jarrod, Harrison, Bylynda, Sharrelle, Madison - stairways to status.

Sometimes you’ll discover families of these at Macca’s.

This psychographic is all around us. We risk becoming part of it if we cease to think about why we buy, and let greed, envy and delusion take over.

This simple guideline would help the fervent consumers, in fact all consumers, to understand a little about cause and effect, before they delude themselves into believing that purchasing leads to paradise, rather than fulfills a need.