Thursday, August 23, 2007

Has quirk peaked?

Michael Hirschorn: "As an aesthetic principle, quirk is an embrace of the odd against the blandly mainstream. It features mannered ingenuousness, an embrace of small moments, narrative randomness, situationally amusing but not hilarious character juxtapositions...and unexplainable but nonetheless charming character traits. Quirk takes not mattering very seriously."

I'm not sure but if a writer for the Atlantic can so concisely describe the formula behind every commercial aimed at young men -- for fast food, deodorant, Skittles -- that formula should probably be re-assessed. Shouldn't it? This is an article that doesn't even address advertising but there it is: a compelling argument against putting a man in a Pippi Longstocking wig. "Correctly deployed, quirk yields unexpected treasures....[but] the problem with contemporary quirk: It can quickly go from an effective narrative tool to an end in itself."

[via KyleSmithOnline]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting point. I think there's so much quirk out there that normal right now will come off as WTF? Then, pendulum swings back and quirk remerges around 2019.

Man, I don’t even want to think about the next decade yet. I will say however that I hope speeding tickets are eliminated by then.