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Comment by prostoalex | Hacker News Reader

Younger audience is more susceptible to aspirational brand messaging - just look at TV ads for youngsters from few decades ago. Old farts are no longer trying to fit in, and in their purchases bring up terms like "lasting value" and "consumer reports".

A friend's son, a newly minted teenager a few years back, had a Logan Paul sweatshirt and T-shirt at the top of the birthday wishlist. Never mind that's it's a generic Old Navy casualware with the Logan Paul logo imprinted on it (and marked up accordingly).

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Consumption habits are sticky. It's more effective to get a young person to like your product and they'll buy it across their working life than to try and convert someone already loyal to another brand

Not always true, it can backfire hard. I know zero 30 year olds wearing abercrombie, hollister, or american eagle today, although that was literally the only acceptable brands for them 15 years ago. Abercrombie still sprays that cologne in their stores, reminds you of stepping back into highschool or middleschool.

Right, so it is targeted at kids whose parents will buy these things for them.

Realistically I think it's probably targeted at anyone who's willing to [get someone to] spend money on it.

Conspicuous consumption has been a thing for ages, and it's always been about presenting an image as having enough disposable income to be able to buy these sorts of things. The fact that some kids have parents who can afford to lavish this stuff on them only adds to the mystique.

I'd argue that it's also inaccurate to characterize this as just a kids thing. Plenty of people my age and older dump money into brands like Rolex and Mercedes. The main difference I personally see is that the price tags are even higher, and the brands themselves turn over at a slower pace.

Conspicuous consumption started with the invention of Santa Claus. Rolex and Mercedes leverage the snob effect.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snob_effect

It's way older than that. There are ancient Greek philosophers who seemingly devoted their careers to criticizing the phenomenon. I would guess it goes even further back, but, past some point, writing down one's thoughts on the subject wouldn't have been available to anyone who might want to write down their thoughts on the subject.

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