Damien Cave Summary

COMM200-U406/02/13 Nicole Prince The article “On Sale at Old Navy: Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies! ” written by Damien Cave explains how as a society we are swayed by the flash of big corporations and in turn are loosing what real culture we have left. Damien Cave starts the article off with a scenario showing a man named “Thomas Frank”. As Frank walks by a heavily decorated Old Navy he shows his disgust saying ”Oh God, this is disgusting”. Thomas Frank is a pioneering social critic, writing articles on how businesses adopted “cool anti-corporate culture”.
As the article progresses we find that these businesses offer nothing more than poor quality merchandise at a low price, and the consumer is lured in by the promise of quality for less. Stores such as Old Navy and Ikea use marketing tricks to keep it’s customer coming back for more. Ikea sets it’s store up like a maze where the exit is placed only at the registers, the room models persuade the consumer they need everything they see. Old Navy hands out extra large shopping bags as a gesture of good customer service but can influence over spending.
Damien Cave brings these issues up so that we the reader are aware of such trickery used by certain chain businesses. Society is so accustomed to these marketing schemes we don’t realize we are replicating each others homes but in different variations; we can all buy the same sofa and not notice. We are lead to believe that we can find happiness in our belongings but that is far from the truth. This merchandise is poor in quality and can cause us to spend more in the end on replacements and repairs. These companies are scamming the general public into believing they are getting a deal and in return we are getting cookie cutter home decor.