Are you aspirational?

“Aspirational”. Of all the words I encountered whilst working in the advertising industry in South Africa, it was the one I came to hate the most. Every consumer was aspirational.
Every marketing manager and her shih tzu wanted her brand to be aspirational. Cars were aspirational. Bank accounts wanted to be aspirational. Deodorant, toothpaste, even washing powder was aspirational.

To be aspirational was a good thing; it placed your brand in a position to appeal to the emerging black middle class or, as they later came to be known, the black diamonds (another two words I came to hate). Chuck the word in the middle of a creative brief and it will lead, magically, to the creation of an ad that will solve all your marketing problems.

I thought I had escaped the notion of being “aspirational” forever. Sadly nay: Australians talk about being “aspirational” too. But here, the word carries connotations that are quite different. Argues academic Gabrielle Gwyther:

” ‘Aspirational’ is used by people outside western Sydney with the same kind of moral undertone that was used with ‘westies’, without an understanding of why people live the way they do.”

Apparently, if you live in Sydney’s traditionally affluent eastern suburbs and drive an SUV, it’s normal; if you do the same in the mortgage belt, you’re “greedy”: “There’s a different morality, so the big house, car and big plasma screen become items of ridicule.”

The distinctive whiff of snobbery and classism might come as a surprise to outsiders who assume that Australia is far more egalitarian than the UK and less obsessed with materialism than South Africa. It seems that the geographical pigeonholing with which Joburgers are familiar (North good, everywhere else dodgy) is true of Sydney too. One resident of the western suburbs complains:

“People think those living in the western suburbs are ferals who just breed and take money from the Government.”

Writing before last year’s elections, Mel Campbell — a journalist who wrote her MA thesis on representations of bogans in the media — reports on the new concept of the “cashed-up bogan” or “cub” for short (not to be confused with the bear cub of gay subculture):

“Under the hazy notion of “aspiration”, consumerism in Australia has become a battleground of national identity. Interviewed for George Megalogenis’s new book The Longest Decade, John Howard describes self-employed, blue-collar workers — in other words, cubs — as “a natural fit with me”.

Perhaps more accurately, the Howard Government has created this fit by linking neo-liberal social and economic policies with a brand of Australian identity emphasising the acquisition of social status and material wealth.”

The Daily Telegraph — favoured daily read of the westies and aspirationals — argues that every suburb deserves a fair go:

“Labels such as bogan, hoon and westie have all been used to put down residents of the west and to make others feel better about themselves. Aspirationals are looked down upon because they seem too keen to improve their lives by hard work and sacrifice. But since when is hard work and sacrifice a crime? Where would Australia’s Olympic athletes be without them?”

Indeed. And in fact, where would Australia’s most successful comic export of the last few years, Kath and Kim, be without the aspirational bogan stereotype on which they are based? Even the Americans are attempting a remake of the series, which is set to be broadcast in October; presumably they are hoping to replicate the success of the American version of The Office. So far, initial reactions by American viewers are not promising.

So I have discovered that it’s impossible to escape from the notion of “aspirational”. Still, on the bright side, I have high hopes that I will encounter it in an advertising brief again.