Saturday, July 18, 2009

Last year, I had the great fun of being guest author on TackyLiving.com.
As my usual, eclectic self, I’d been cruising the internet for unusual things. So far, I’d found:
The Gallery of Regrettable Food (by James Lileks, available at Amazon and half.com) He also brought us Interior Desecration (I always knew the 70s would come back to haunt us).
WhatNotToCrochet
and
CakeWrecks
Who knew there were so many fun, frighteningly tacky things??

As a marketing professor and researcher of consumer behavior, it got me thinking about tackiness.
We all know that what is tasteful for one person is tacky for another (I’d learned that quite thoroughly in retail). But, what makes tacky? Are there things that are tacky for everyone?
And, what’s kitsch? Is it the same thing as tacky?
Somewhere I read that kitsch is only kitsch if one is unaware of its tackiness. Hmmm… That would mean that no one enjoys collecting kitsch. (Either that’s a huge disappointment or circular thinking.)
I noticed that this month, WhatNotToCrochet asks the question, “What’s the point where something slips from cute to FUG?”
Of course, it answers, “there – no just behind that”.
Okaaayyyyyyy. Something tells me that answer won’t get me into the Journal of Marketing. But, it brings up a really good point.
Is tackiness like pornography? We can’t define it but we’ll know it when we see it?

No comments:

Post a Comment