To me, it's the end game for consumerism. The products themselves just get in the way -- the feeling is what you really want to have.
It's not new, I think. Just perhaps a little more blatant, and for more companies, than previously.
It's not new, I think. Just perhaps a little more blatant, and for more companies, than previously.
It’s definitely been around for a long time for some companies (I think auto manufacturers have been trying to sell cars = personal freedom and status as long as the car has existed) and you could argue that governments and religions have been doing it all of history, but I do agree that a lot more companies have been doing it the past several decades. Every damn podcast ad has to be about how a razor, mattress, or pair of underwear is a defining, empowering lifestyle choice.
As for the style: conspicuous consumption may have been the first consumption, after basic subsistence.
In chess games, often there is no endgame - the game ends in the middlegame, or sometimes even in the opening. If there is an endgame, not uncommonly most of the whole game is the endgame, 60% or 70% or more.
In movies, almost every time you see people playing, someone moves and says "Checkmate", which is also, I guess, around the time meant by 'end game' - right at the end of the game. That's just not much like what the word means in chess. except, sure, it's the last of 3 phases (opening, middlegame, endgame).