The nonsmiling magazines are all about exclusivity and status.
Though the stock they're pushing can be afforded only by the very rich, the message conveyed (as with Marc Jacobs) is not one of snobbery, exclusivity or status anxiety but accessibility, sympathy — even a little goofiness.
This paper is tentatively titled, "A Cut Above: Exclusivity and Status in Consumer Loyalty Programs".
Turns out, there's research to back that up, too: In one experiment, titled "Aggression, Exclusivity, and Status Attainment in Interpersonal Networks," sociologist Roger Faris followed a group of middle-schoolers for three years to understand what made them popular.
Say the word "luxury" and negative, rather than positive images are evoked, like conspicuous consumption, indulgence, exclusivity, elitism, extravagance, status seeking and income inequality.
Early adopters (next 13.5%) seek status and exclusivity.
For most students, status and exclusivity do not register.
Many horsewomen said their parents put them atop ponies when they were still in diapers, too young to know the status and exclusivity attached to competitive riding.
One explanation for the widespread appeal of ostensibly artisanal products is that owning handmade, small-batch goods conveys status and exclusivity at a time when just about anything mass-produced can be purchased down the street at Costco.
In the film's view, this young man, brilliantly and twitchily embodied by Jesse Eisenberg, is able to construct Facebook not only because he is a computer genius, but also because he is morbidly obsessed with status and exclusivity.
