Blog Week 6

Something that really caught my attention from the slideshow was Naomi Klein’s observation that companies no longer market their products but a particular lifestyle. My passion is snowboarding and until now never really thought about the underlying themes in advertising that goes on in magazines, videos or pictures. In snowboarding and skateboarding, more than any other sport, riders are often characterized by the brands that they ride for. Snowboard and skateboard brands give away millions of dollars in free product to riders that they hope will display their version of the snowboarding lifestyle. “Brands are stars” is an especially true statement in the board sport world because everyone associates a particular rider with the brand that they ride for. A universally known company like Burton tries to portray their riders in a family-friendly light to make it appealing to the masses and try and sell more products. While everyone on the team has their individual style and taste it is ultimately the company (Burton in this case) that decides what personalities and actions to showcase. A company like Technine snowboards displays a heavily hip hop influenced lifestyle with ridiculously baggy clothes and graphics that represent the hip hop ideals (guns, drugs, money). This brand is less concerned with their family image and more concerned about giving the hip hop influenced youth a product that will represent their lifestyle. Many other companies do the same “lifestyle marketing”, often relating their product to a particular lifestyle influenced by a music genre (hip hop, punk, classic rock, etc….). Because of these impressive marketing techniques many riders refuse to ride for particular companies or are dedicated to only one because of the lifestyle they infer.