mirror mirror on the wall, hedonism & stealth aspiration is the new consumer game of Winner Takes All

BTW, stealth consumption mirrors election results: a case study on hedonism, barn jackets, and nascent shifts in consumer culture

Nov 19, 2024

I know we’re election-analysis fatigued 🫠. But after reading this article in NY Mag (by Simon van Zuylen-Wood) about how even New Yorkers flipped towards Trump, I knew that 2024 TM culture wouldn’t be complete without this consumer analysis. I’m hoping some of these throughlines are novel, and that it provides some value by offering a different lens into shifts relating to consumer culture. As always, this letter is heavily underpinned by the ™ special: philosophy, sociology, and OFC... the economy. Let’s dig in —

Hate to go there in retrospect, but the fact that consumers have developed a crush on the American Dream again (cough, return of barn jackets)...mirrored against the Gen Z (brat) rebrand of indie sleaze…. could have predicted Trump’s win. However…. in true trademarked fashion, I promise that it’s not happening in the way that you’d expect.

When we talk about the American Dream, it’s typically wrapped in ideals of hard work, opportunity, and legacy (aka eudaemonia - more below). But in practice, we’ve actually been trading collectivism (broad-strokes progress, hope) for hyper-individualism (fear, everyone for themselves). Salt of the earth puritanism has turned into a dalliance with hedonism — pleasure-seeking, self-serving, and the quest for immediate gratification. Subsequently, I’m observing a shift in consumer ethos. And while, on the surface, this shift is driving two very different trends, it also… happens to mirror recent election results.

High level on Hedonic vs Eudaemonic Consumption

Hedonic consumption (hedonism) is rooted in the pursuit of pleasure, personal satisfaction, and immediate gratification. Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) have done fascinating research on how this influences consumer trends, where indulgence drives purchasing behavior. Across various works, Foucault has also (famously) examined how we regulate pleasure/consumption via societal norms. TLDR, Hedonic values are very Donnie T + jr/RFK jr/Elon Musk….eating McDonalds….. on a jet. The darkly absurdist, 2024 version of 2014 celebs “eating” french fries in the backseat of a Suburban & heading to Coachella, if you will.

Conversely, Eudaemonic consumption (via Aristotle’s concept of eudaemonia) is all about a life of purpose, meaning, and self-actualization. It’s rooted in selflessness and community as the long-term preservation of self. Scholars like Martin Seligman have explored how purpose-driven choices, like spending on education or sustainable goods, contribute to a sense of eudaemonic flourishing. Very Harris-Walz, very “when they go low, we go high.”

And obviously, modern consumption doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so we’re constantly blending these paradigms on our own consumer indifference curves of “good” and “bad”. Ryan and Deci argue that hedonia and eudaemonia both underpin well-being. This duality reflects broader societal dynamics, where instead of Hedonism Out Loud, we’re starting to see Hedonism masked as Eudaemonia (we’ll get to this below). This offers critical insight into the micro to macro shifts in cultural values, and challenges how we define morality and aspiration in an age of “abundance” (in airquotes bc this is divisive and many consumers feel gaslit by the economy, however, the economy is objectively strong: inflation is coming down, statistically – wages are the highest they’ve ever been in US history.. also they ARE proportional to increases in cost of goods, employment is near all time highs, and colloquially (via Mckinsey) – pockets & hearts are open 2 spend). Also to be clear, hedonism tends to trend during periods of economic prosperity (read ™ 4 the analysis).

Hedonism is a Horseshoe (sympathy is a knife.. haha)

Ok here’s the fascinating tension occurring. Instead of JUST seeing Hedonism (brat energy, trump energy), or JUST seeing Eudaemonia (barn jackets as utility, Kamala Harris energy), we’re seeing a bifurcation in consumer psychology x behavior. Trump vibes and brat were always going to be two different sides (politically) of the same Hedonic coin. Kamala vibes were always going to be Eudaemonic…. But barn jackets? The commodification of the American Dream? JCrew’s comeback? The politics, business, and trendline of (consumer) aspiration? That’s where we got duped….it’s all Hedonism baby.

The reason why this category of hedonic consumption is so dangerous is because upon first glance, it seems Eudaemonic. The American Dream? Oh, you mean, collectivist ideals for the greater good of humanity? Barn Jackets? Oh, you mean salt of the earth utility-wear projecting values of tradition and morality? That all works if we dismiss the psychological levers of aspiration, aka the why that underpins overt behavior and consumption. We’re literally in the era of “never judge a book by its cover”, but maybe more insidiously than originally intended by your first grade teacher.

Are we consuming based on who we are? Or who we want to be? The difference matters.

At its core, this election, our consumption, and culture (as influenced by social media…obviously) is a love letter to the power of aspiration. And you may be asking, “how did we get here?” I mean, how much time do you have LOL —

We could blame reality television/The Kardashians/MTV Cribs for providing ground zero into the lives of others we have no tangible (economic) access to. THEN social media flattened our ability to reach across tax brackets in ways that old school sociologists would have marveled (hate to be this girl, but Marx would have loooved to analyze social media, aspiration, and rejection vs attachment to acquisition across culture).

The challenge for consumers today is that aspiration has become harder to pin down. In simpler periods of our consumer response to hedonism x aspiration, all we cared about was being really rich, flying private, and wearing every logo in sight (rip 2016). Maybe the fact that the economy has been in stealth reparation mode is what twisted our fate. Rather than feeling excited about winning (and therefore, spending.. ludicrously, delusionally), we’re as anxious as ever – constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. That could be one plausible hypothesis for the post pandemic consumer response to stealth wealth, and how the aspiration of being luxurious…. quietly…. has been mirrored back to us across TV, culture, and Gen Z Celebrity (Succession, Gwyneth Paltrow’s “I wish you well” courtroom style, Sofia Richie’s bridal era.. canonically).

This economic ambiguity reflects the broader cultural tension, and consumer appetite. Are we buying barn jackets because it’s who we are — or because it’s who we want to be? The why for the latter is clear, as the proof is in the quiet luxury pudding (tbt to when we briefly thought we’d escaped her… 9 lives).

And in a landscape where values and aesthetics intertwine, how do we distinguish between the two? The rise of hedonism disguised as eudaemonia blurs our ability to depict waves of consumption in alignment with values. In order to understand consumer behavior in 2024, we’ll need to unpack consumer aspiration. And for that, back to the algorithm I go….

ILY, let’s chat more in the comments/in our groupchat, can’t wait to hear all of your thoughts!!!!!!!!

TM x

mirror mirror on the wall, hedonism & stealth aspiration is the new consumer game of Winner Takes All

BTW, stealth consumption mirrors election results: a case study on hedonism, barn jackets, and nascent shifts in consumer culture

High level on Hedonic vs Eudaemonic Consumption

Hedonism is a Horseshoe (sympathy is a knife.. haha)

Are we consuming based on who we are? Or who we want to be? The difference matters.

Works Cited

Discussion about this post