Posted on 07/08/2009 3:35:39 PM PDT by AJKauf
I lived outside of the US for many years and it was an excellent way to get a fresh perspective on the country. One phenomenon I observed from afar that I’d never noticed up close was what I came to call The Gorp Syndrome. It works like this. Private minds create a useful product to meet their needs: like Gorp, or trail mix, a blend of raisins and nuts made by campers to deliver a natural and healthy blast of energy during a hike in the woods. Some smart company gets the idea to package and sell the product. After the product reaches its full customer base of, say, hikers and health-minded snackers, the company seeks to expand the product’s appeal while maintaining its identity. So they add carob or yogurt covered raisins: sweeter, so more people will buy it, but still arguably “natural,” and “healthy,” although now with quotation marks. Then someone at the company says, well, hey, if people like sweet stuff so much, why not add something really sweet like, say, M & M’s? So ultimately Gorp, while weirdly retaining some completely undeserved aura of healthiness, is transformed into sugary garbage.
Thus rice cakes become caramel rice cakes and Broadway theater becomes The Little Mermaid and journalism becomes in-depth reporting on every other dead blond and Marilyn Monroe becomes Madonna - and an entertainment icon becomes Michael Jackson....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Worst.
Embalming.
Ever.
My ex wife used to get mad when I gorped her in public.
“...the company seeks to expand the product’s appeal...”
Seems to me that’s a means to an end rather than an end. Seems to me the real end is to expand the company, or the market share, or their image or other stuff like that. It’s part of the mindset that pursues “more” and “bigger” even at the expense of what they already have.
Very well written article. Very good post.
parsy, who appreciates the analogies
I know what you mean. I did it by accident once at a party. She got really upset. So did my wife.
Fruits, nut’s, flakes....
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