Again, we quite agree with Gawker’s assessment that SWPL is dead, partly by overanalyzing by wonkish, humorless reporters looking to make a name for themselves with overly-earnest “think” pieces on race in America and partly by the site’s own hand. As Gawker notes, a far more subtle but much more on-target satirical take-down (and thusly less popular) site exists: White Whine. Read it.
But here’s the really interesting thing about White Whine. From a branding and marketing perspective it is a treasure trove of perceived brand identify.
I went through the most recent 50 “whines” and found the following brands, all used to varying degrees of positive/negative:
- Trader Joe’s
- Maxwell House
- Cremora
- FreshDirect
- J-Crew
- Zappos
- Amazon
- iPhone
- Fruit of the Loom
- Threadless
- American Apparel
- Microsoft
- Firefox
- Diet Coke
- Landrover
- Honda
- Airborne
- HBO
- iPod
- Papa John’s
- Whole Foods
- Wii
- Vitamin Water
- Bellagio
- Barnes and Noble
- Fed Ex
- Men’s Health
- publix
- Wachovia
Moreover, it seems that almost every other whine is, in one way or another, about being a consumer. What does that say about what white people like? Or maybe, who white people are, whether they like it or not?