Can I Have My Money Back?

I have to agree with you. Although it takes talent and insight to make a commercial that breaks out of its money driven motivation. Most commercials are self serving absurd annoyances (junk food for the mind), but this one seems to take particular pleasure in reducing cultural trends into nothing more than capitalistic banality, opportunities to make money, plundering and robbing them of their deeper inspiration.
The commercial is of course just a sign post. A sign that garbage has entered and is clogging vinyl production. How much shit do I have to weed through to find the interesting items. Things made with a knowledge and love of the craft. Depending on your interest, that may not be a problem. To me it's worth it, but at some point, perhaps to a lot of people, it may become just more capitalist noise. The hungry shark moves on. On the other hand as long as we don't kill off the life sustaining fundamentals of the sea, their will be lots of colorful morsels to sample, enough to support a variety of unique tasters. The resurgence of vinyl may be another sign of the viability of having a variety of choices in ways and kinds of music available and point a way out of a mono culture music industry and over fishing.
When it comes, and eventually it will, the second dump will be a lot less juicy than the first. Every generation takes its own kind of dump. Ultimately the joke is on the shark with clean shave, if not Kevin Spacey, but he's just acting...of course !

I was at Bordentown Records yesterday. A TV film crew was just leaving having filmed a spot there to be aired sometime next week. Sorry, don't know which of the 3 big players will show it on evening news. Anyway, a short report on the store and vinyl resurgence. The store owners told me that there is a new record pressing plant in Bordentown, NJ. It is a very nice medium size used record store in beautiful downtown Bordentown. They maintain an active live concert schedule too. Very customer friendly unlike their Princeton counterpart.

And was bothered by it as the underhanded message works, it struck fear in me that others watching will assume that vinyl resurgence is just a passing fancy. I have read the same on forums talking about the Pioneer PLX-1000 and why one would want to purchase one when Technics killed the SL-1200 because of vinyl's slow demise (ignoring the fact that Technics will re-launch the SL-1200 in 2016). But there is a group of people out in the forums who espouse FLAC files and high-rez recordings and mock vinyl lovers as Luddites desperately holding on to an ageing format. I believe these people know absolutely nothing about the joys of vinyl and should be called out for this. As Wim Wenders said best; "Don't spend your money on therapy spend it in a record store"

I know you said subliminal and intended or unintended messages are open to interpretation, but just like my key take away from one of my HS English class focused on interpreting poetry you can overanalyze things.

I feel that is what is going on here. For this ad to be considered concerning or for it to have struck fear into the viewer I think is blowing this waaaay out of proportion with regards to both its message and its potential influence.

This it more directed at the hipster (or hipster stereotype) as a whole, of which vinyl consumer/listening is a part of it, but please think about all that you saw in the ad:

- Flipping through Vinyl
- Riding bicycle
- Big beard
- Tattoos
- Coffee shop
- Messenger bag

Looking at this list makes me wonder if the "Two Wheel Planet" site is seriously worried and fearful of the message implanted in this ad about bicycles.

They are trying to make a rather general trend-spotter ahead of the curve point so the content isn't supposed to be taken literally, but if you do there are two ridiculous things:

1) So, is this woman going to throw her money into barber shops? … oh maybe Gillette?

2) Her boyfriend/fiance/husband had a pretty big beard himself! Is she going to drop him for the clean-shaven guy?… is she going to ask her man to shave? (Example of overanalyzing?)

… but probably the most laughable aspect of this ad is its whole premise - that you can see the future trends and that E-Trade is the tool you need when in reality the vast majority never do see the future trend, and even the professionals and managers of funds many times don't perform above average.

With regard to the potential impact of this ad… Do you recall the E-Trade TV spot before this one? Do you remember a few frames of that ad? Did it turn you on or off to whatever were in those few frames or did it have no impact? Most like the answers are "No" to all 3 of these.

No, I think we should be more concerned with the wave of ads, sitcoms, furniture catalogs,etc. that insert a turntable into view as I think it is overuse and overexposure that turn people off to things or at the very least may keep a person from trying something new.

And even if something is treated as a fad by the media, it doesn't mean that the item goes away once it is no longer in the media. Especially if the item is something of substance (and I think we all would argue vinyl is one of those) then it is likely to last. It may not be as popular and sell as much, but it will continue. One example that comes to mind... Punk Rock. When was the last time you saw a stereotypical punk with spiked mohawk on TV? Probably not in a while, but even though most punks don't look like that anyway, plenty of punk kids exist. You only need to look at publications like Maximum Rock N Roll... or go to the Punk Rock section of your local record store.

I don't like labels like "hipster" to describe groups of people. Strikes me as an establishment label to keep people who don't look like "most" people from having any importance. I suppose we can all be put in some category but any "group" is diverse. All "hippies" were not alike, and all "hipsters" are not alike. As for the record industry status and outlook, if the product is good, which we know it is, it will survive. Right now there is a lot of junk being produced among the gems.

when hipsters were pants not people!

is "peak beard". and we have reached peak beard.

What if I am a bearded, vinyl collecting cyclist sitting in a coffee shop with a messenger bag over my shoulder?

I saw the ad and raised an eyebrow.

If E-trade presumes to know trends and the market, it would seem they lack depth to earn my money.

Clearly there's more to this picture.

If you only knew what a "Design by Committee" process TV spots are* it wouldn't be a surprise that this stereotype became part of the spot. While it may be a juvenile and completely unoriginal take on the vinyl resurgence I still think it's good that the spot recognizes that there's energy and interest in records again.

*I didn't design that record shop window, but am glad I got to do the fast food restaurants on another spot in the series, it's good to have work (even if the 'Committee" make you revise it over and over again, "Free Range", Oy Vey!): http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7iaw/etrade-opportunity-is-everywhere-fast-food-f...

Clean shaven Michael is again ahead of the trend. ;-)

So, Michael, what do you think of the latest Mission Impossible movie (Rogue Nation) using a record store and a code-speak, Coltrane "first pressing" vinyl record to impart the self-destructing, mission message to Ethan Hunt? Interesting choice for a "soon to be over fad fueled by hipsters." Although, with a white label in a plain white jacket, it looks more like a test pressing.

I think the woman looks kinda like Joni Mitchell. Maybe the "hipster" in the record store was looking for a 1st pressing of "Blue", with the initials "BG" in the dead wax.

They are afraid of mom and pop record stores not under the control of publicly traded soulless corporations. The "average investor" doesn't like the underground economy. Why else would they legalize pot? Once it's legal, the clean shaven guys with fancy suits can monetize it, then convert that capital into a fourth or fifth island.

Is the plural of 'hipster doofus' (with or without craft beer beard, bicycle, vinyl, tattoo, and/or shoulder bag) 'hipster doofi'?

This is an the all-important question, I feel.