|
Tracking
Elusive Prey
|
|
-
Page 1 -
|
Introspection
can be a frightening thing.
And since frightening things are fun, let's indulge a little shall
we? Someone has to do it - it might as well be us.
First,
let's start by admitting something. Admitting something that we
probably always knew but never really liked to own up to. It's
this: that we choose product brands that we think reflect who
we are or would like to be. Brand use is a form of personal advertising.
That shiny-labelled bottle in your hand is a small billboard for
you. Not a particularly good one, mind you, but a billboard just
the same.
|
That
shiny-labelled bottle in your hand is a small billboard
for you. Not a particularly good one, mind you, but a billboard
just the same.
|
Ok,
now that we've gotten that mildly unsavoury bit of business out
of the way we can proceed to something more worrisome. We can
look at how our brand selection has evolved over time, and by
default then, how our self-image has evolved.
You
always leave tracks. Even when you think you aren't.
So
let's randomly choose a product category to use as a measuring
stick for our self-image then. Actually, let's just save some
time and choose alcohol, since once you've decided to drink much
of your choice of brands is tied to the label on the bottle. And
let's use me as an example, since it's just the two of us and,
frankly, you aren't saying much.
Now
that we have everything we need, let's pick up the trail and see
what we can find.
Shaggy
D's Booze Timeline and Psychographic Trail
|
Ages
15 - 16
|
| I
am a purist - it's all about raging, holographic levels of
intoxication. Brand names and pretences have yet to impinge
upon my drinking practices - I drink for the sheer poetic
violence of being drunk. The more the better. I am untainted
by pretence and ulterior motives. We are all born with pure
souls - what we do after that is complicated. |
| Booze
of Choice: Anything I can get my hands on. Concoctions
made of the top half inch of every bottle in an unsuspecting
liquor cabinet are fair game. |
|
Ages
17 - 22:
|
| Drinking
is religion and philosophy rolled into one. I drink like a
brave on a spiritual journey - altered states are enlightenment;
Consequences are tithing - a price that no pilgrim would hesitate
to pay. |
|
Booze
of Choice:
Kronenbrau
1308 - Strong tasting beer with piles of tactile kick. It's
not about being different at all; in fact that makes me
ever so slightly uncomfortable at this point. It's about
drinking beer that tastes like beer, not like alcoholic
pop. I despise light flavoured beers like Kokanee, Budweiser
and, worst of all evils, Coors Light. The beer I drink must
have a flavour that makes the faces of the uninitiated twist
with shock. Blunt and heavy. A man's beer. When extra-strong
beers erupt onto the scene I pounce on them with wild abandon.
Ambrosia.
Jack
Daniels - A black-labelled bourbon with skeletal lettering
- the predictable favourite of young men who want an alcohol
that shows off their masculinity. The key is to be able
to drink it with a straight face. The weak will flinch and
writhe. A serious drinking man will down it straight, or
in paralyzingly strong mixes with coke, while acting like
he's drinking water. Drinking straight from the bottle is
ideal as it allows everyone to appreciate the magnitude
of what you're doing - no getting it confused with Crown
Royal or other smooth rye whiskeys. A collection of empty
bottles adorns the windowsills of my various apartments
like a necklace of bear teeth on a young warrior.
|
