The End is Near...I Think?

If I were to believe everything that I was told in the media, it would seem an almost certain conclusion that in my lifetime the world will be utterly destroyed. The "Apocalypse" as it is often called, will wipe out the entire population of the earth in some grand fashion and that will be that. There are so many ways that it could happen such as zombies, a meteor, computers taking over, aliens, global warming, nuclear weapons, biker mice from mars, etc. With so many options our odds don't look good at all, we should all just give up and wait for the end.

Give me a break.

During our discussion this week on the Apocalypse it became very clear to me that our world has to be nuts. The Earth has been around for billions of years, long before humans were ever relevant creatures. I like the odds that the Earth will be around long after the last of us humans has died off. Trying to predict a future day of reckoning where all humans are going to be wiped out is such a waste of time. It's also disturbing.

Unfortunately, the media has a knack for jumping onto anything that will cause panic in the public eye. Once the media has its hold, they will milk that cow til its dry. The sheer number of apocalypse themed movies that have been created in the past few decades is surely an indication of this. Not to mention the number of hours of news time people get if they predict that the world will end in the coming year.

How am I ever to believe that our world will be coming to an end if no one can ever agree on how that is going to happen? Making a thousand predictions and praying that one will be right so that you can say I told you so (actually, they wouldn't be able to...) is like taking credit for the weather. Obviously the world will end one day, no one knows when how or why. But why waste time the time and energy on such a pointless topic? After all, once the apocalypse does come it's not like we are going to be able to analyze it after the fact. We will be gone.

All the movies that have been created on the apocalypse I'll admit make for a great source of entertainment. Seeing what new theory can be kicked into our heads by the movie industry is always fun. I personally enjoy the apocalypse themed movies that offer a nice side of comedy with them. I want to laugh at the end of the world, not cry. Zombieland (see below) for example tries to teach us how to survive a zombie apocalypse, they even give us rules to follow such as the popular "Double Tap".

For more on this please see the 32 Rules of Zombieland: http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_16631.html

I appreciate the fact that I am not the only one who sees the idea of an apocalypse as a farce. I agree with the approach to see the apocalypse in a funny tone. Too many people will be scrambling to cling onto a life that won't matter once the apocalypse comes. If I can pretend to be a zombie instead and scare these people then I would much rather do that. Thanks to Bill Murray, I will do my best to make sure that this happens.

Clothes Sell: The Harry Rosen Story

In a world today that is seemingly dominated by the notion that "Sex Sells", it is nice to know that there is still some sense left in humanity when it comes to advertising. We recently had a lecture on sexuality and gender, and in this lecture there arose at one point the above notion. We were shown ads, both videos and images, which seemed to exploit the thought that in order for a product to sell it must in some way be related to sex.

This got me thinking. Whenever you go to a shopping mall you are bombarded with advertisements showcasing barely clothed males and females that are apparently modelling the clothes of whichever store they are for. These stores are obviously using sex as a reason for consumers to pick their product over others. Consumers believe that if they buy those clothes, they will be seen as desirable.

However, in these very same shopping malls there exists stores which use next to no visual advertisement whatsoever. And the ads that they do have are tasteful and showcasing the stores actual product, as opposed to the model that is wearing their product. I notice that these stores are generally the higher-end stores, the stores which are meant to appeal to a demographic of consumers with more money to spend on shopping. Stores like Harry Rosen.

Harry Rosen is a store that was founded on the principle that service was more important than the clothes. Harry Rosen wanted to appeal to the male consumer by showing them that his store was a place they could go to for trusted advice, from one man to another. The aim was never to sell fashion. Fashion was just something that resulted from Harry Rosen's simple design. In the 50 years since his first store opened, Harry Rosen has never deviated from this plan. Harry Rosen's stores are a true showing that if you sell your product effectively, you will not have to rely on sex appeal to make your clothes appealing.

Above you can see a picture of the inside of a Harry Rosen store. You will notice that there are no images of models, there are no large empty spaces. There are clothes, the stores product. These clothes are presented in a manner that showcases which items go with what, and varying options to find something that works for the consumer. Simply put, the store is doing what its original purpose was - selling clothes.

Now, many would argue that Harry Rosen is not a fair comparison for those lower-end stores which do use sex to sell their products. But to me, that is not a valid claim. There is a reason that Harry Rosen rose to a higher-end status while those stores which use sex appeal sunk to lower-end. That is because Harry Rosen became a status symbol, not just a clothing store. There is a certain reputation that goes with those who shop at Harry Rosen, a good reputation, a reputation that says these men purchased their clothes because they liked how they looked not because they thought that their clothes would attain them higher sex appeal.

Of course, that is not to say that the clothes being purchased at Harry Rosen aren't going to appeal to the opposite sex. If anything, the quality and fit you will receive from Harry Rosen will make your clothes look better on you than any lower-end store's product ever could. In the words of ZZ Top, every girl is crazy about a sharp dressed man.