A commercial that promotes the worst of today

[PrettySquareGal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rP2_8FhGvN8

That's right. Destroy a lovely vintage bathroom in excellent condition for new and improved ugly banality.

 

[Feraud]

Crass consumerism. They could have showed a bathroom that needed renovation.

 

[William Stratford]

Crass consumerism. They could have showed a bathroom that needed renovation.

Indeed. Got to stamp your "individuality" on it, after all....

Renovating or restoring make sense, but this is idiocy.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Crass consumerism. They could have showed a bathroom that needed renovation.

Exactly! The one shown was in perfect condition! And why not encourage donating usable items to Habitat For Humanity?

 

[HoundstoothLuke]

Indeed. Got to stamp your "individuality" on it, after all....

Renovating or restoring make sense, but this is idiocy.

stamping on individuality, which is exactly the same as every other modern bathroom.
Still, cookie-cutter "individualism" is about par for the course in modern society, as has been stated many times here on the FL.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Gee whiz, I must really be out of it. I had no idea the current definition of "individual" meant looking like an industrial-park office restroom. But where's the hand dryers?

 

[Noirblack]

Indeed. Got to stamp your "individuality" on it, after all....

Renovating or restoring make sense, but this is idiocy.

If renovating makes sense, and the people in the commercial are renovating, why is this idiocy?

The premise of the commercial is that they don't like the bathroom as it is. Would you appreciate someone saying that you can't have your home the way you want it?

 

[Feraud]

I wonder If the hipster-chick DIY crowed (target group of the commercial) know their refurbished bath won't last half as long as grandma's due to the crappy imported products from their local big box hardware chain?

 

[PrettySquareGal]

If renovating makes sense, and the people in the commercial are renovating, why is this idiocy?

The premise of the commercial is that they don't like the bathroom as it is. Would you appreciate someone saying that you can't have your home the way you want it?

People can do as they wish with their homes for any reason they choose, as can a company promote the idea that you should destroy something simply because it's outdated and replace it with their merchandise. People have the freedom to destroy usable items and go into debt to buy cheaply made garbage. I've just never seen such a poorly executed commercial that is an unintended parody of itself and the people they wish to reach.

 

[Flicka]

Renovating to me is fixing up something that's worn out. What they are doing is restyling and they're doing it in lousy taste. The commercial is based on the premise that we will all agree that was bad before and good afterwards and I (and most people here) actually think quite the opposite, which to me says failed commercial (the original I can actually see in a hip interior magazine; the re-done version just looks cheap).

And hipster-chick? Since when is the modern suburban bourgeoisie hip-anything?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Practically every aspect of modern consumer culture -- billions and billions of dollars annually -- is focused on the sole purpose of convincing the white suburban petit-bourgeoisie that they are, in fact, hip.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Even many of the YouTubers agree:

"this advertisement is retarded. for those of us that give a damn about reusing and recycling, and couldn't give a damn about having to have all the latest trends, lowe's has pissed us off. why not encourage selling vintage tile to those who want it (there are lots of us) rather than blowing everything to hell?"

"Ugh. What a shame to destroy a gorgeous, vintage bath and replace it with hideous, soulless, cookie-cutter "style". Oh right, it's Lowes."

"Honestly the old bathroom had color and personality. The new bathroom looks like it should be in a hospital."

"This is horrible! No one should use a sledgehammer like that is a small space. And why destroy what looks like a perfectly functional kitchen just to put in disposable goods? If that was a vintage bathroom what a waste of embodied materials. Ugh."

"Shame on Lowe's for picturing a pristine, functional retro bathroom and having someone destroy it with glee! Pathetic. They should at least have used as the "before" a rundown, ugly bathroom. The new one has absolutely no personality, and will most certainly be considered ugly by a future homeowner. But that's the point of the commerical, isn't it? Destroy the old so you can buy the new cheap stuff from us."

"that new bathroom is ugly and looks like any other. The old one was much prettier!"

 

[scottyrocks]

It always bothers me to see stuff destroyed. This goes all the way back to my childhood. I hated taking building block structures apart after I made them.

I love movie car chases but hated the crashes.

Each time that sledge hammer hit the sink and cabinet, I got sick to my stomach. And did you notice how pristine the original bathroom was? That made it even worse.

I like things the way they are will always choose to repair something rather than replace it, unless, of course, it is beyond repair.

Maybe that doesn't make me vintage, necessarily, but I feel it fits on with the anti-consumerism mindset so prevalent here, and I'm proud of that.

 

[Juliet]

I didn't realize that in this day and age of the looming Crisis, the average consumer can afford to change bathroom interiors on a whim. Or did they put in a public restroom?

 

[William Stratford]

If renovating makes sense, and the people in the commercial are renovating, why is this idiocy?

The premise of the commercial is that they don't like the bathroom as it is. Would you appreciate someone saying that you can't have your home the way you want it?

The premise of the advert is that you should modernise into the latest fashion rather than keep something as it is, repair it, or restore it into a traditional pattern. It is idiocy because consumerism is idiocy, in that it tells us to want something new until we have it...at which point we are supposed to want something new again - this being the essence of fashion.

Modern society is obsessed with "expressing your individuality"...which is probably why manners are rapidly disappearing; because we receive them rather than invent them ourselves, and that makes them "anti-individualism".

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Modern society is obsessed with "expressing your individuality".

And it all looks the same! :doh:

 

[William Stratford]

And it all looks the same! :doh:

That's the irony of it. Now I have nothing against conformity and commonality (after all, the concept of a dress code, langauge and manners are rooted in such) but when people buy a mass marketed product to express their individuality it fails twice over...once because it denies the basis of society and secondly because it isnt individual after all.

 

[Flicka]

We're all desperate to pretend we all want to be 'special' but show most people an original thought and they'll be terrified.

Manners should be grounded in empathy and care for people around you. You can care about others and still be a unique individual. You just can't do it and be megalomaniacally egotistic which I think is the true ill of our time...

 

[William Stratford]

Manners should be grounded in empathy and care for people around you.

That is a rationalist perspective which ignores the fact that much of human behaviour is irrational (with manners passed along because "that is what we do" rather than them trying to adhere to some objective universal rationally-recognised "right way").

You can care about others and still be a unique individual. You just can't do it and be megalomaniacally egotistic which I think is the true ill of our time...

Actually, much of manners and individualism are poles apart - manners are a common way of behaving that we fit into, whilst individualism demands that we can "do it my way". Modern society is obsessed with individualism, and the result is a spreading chaos as society is ripped apart by all of those "individuals" atomising.

 

[Flicka]

Actually, much of manners and individualism are poles apart - manners are a common way of behaving that we fit into, whilst individualism demands that we can "do it my way". Modern society is obsessed with individualism, and the result is a spreading chaos as society is ripped apart by all of those "individuals" atomising.

No, they are not. You think they are. I don't.

I think the problem is that we don't mean they same by "individualism". What you refer to, I would call egoism which is something very, very different to me. I wouldn't be surprised if modern society calls egoism "individualism" because you know, sometimes a rose by any other name just smells better. When I say "individualism" I mean the opposite of peer pressure and swallowing any silliness just because "everybody else does it".

You can be an individual and proud of that and still care about the group and want the group to work out well for everyone. But you can't be egotistic and care about the group. It's not about if you want to be like everyone else or not in my opinion; it's about whether or not you think you are more important than everyone else. If you don't, then treating people in a way that facilitates life not for you, but for them (which is what manners is about to me) is pretty natural.