"Advertising Has Us Chasing Cars and Clothes, Working Jobs We Don't Like So We Buy Shit We Don't Need"

Image Via Town and Country

as long as i can remember i’ve wanted a volkswagen beetle.  the old model, of course.  i can’t place my finger on exactly why i’ve longed for that car, just a series of vignettes: the taxi cabs in d.f.; getting my learners permit in mexico, and; the girl who parked in front of the boutique i worked at  during my freshmen year of college – she seemed to thumb her nose at the superficial culture of los angeles. i’ve never felt that way about the new design. i mostly chalked that up to negative association -- an annoying roommate who drove a bright blue new beetle. recently, however, i came across this:

“during rehearsals [for fight club], brad pitt and edward norton found out that they both hated the new volkswagen beetle with a passion, and for the scene where tyler and the narrator are hitting cars with baseball bats, pitt and norton insisted that one of the cars be a beetle. as norton explains on the dvd commentary, he hates the car because the beetle was one of the primary symbols of 60s youth culture and freedom. however, the youth of the 60s had become the corporate bosses of the 90s, and had repackaged the symbol of their own youth, selling it to the youth of another generation as if it didn’t mean anything. both norton and pitt felt that this kind of corporate selling out was exactly what the film was railing against, hence the inclusion of the car; 'it’s a perfect example of the baby boomer generation marketing its youth culture to us. as if our happiness is going to come by buying the symbol of their youth movement, even with the little flower holder in the plastic molding. it’s appalling to me. i hate it.'”

Via From Paris to London

this, in many ways, explains why i have such distain for hipster culture.