WIMPS and Brands

Like most men I am occasionally forced to forage out in the wild for food and wine. It was Saturday and decided to make take a journey through the local 'mall' (I hate this word, but chose to use it as an insult to shopping centres) to my shop of choice. Oh dear, what a mistake that was.

I entered the shopping centre at a brisk pace, only to be confronted with a wall of people. I manoeuvred myself into the 'fast lane' but kept being held up by people slowing down for no apparent reason. I was going nowhere fast. I then realised that these slower people were engaged in the act of texting while walking, and were clearly not yet fully adjusted to this challenging form of modern day multitasking. This reminded me of an article I read on the invisible mystery glue of the universe. The scientists think that this is made up of WIMPS, or 'weakly interacting massive particles'. Less invisible here I feel.

I eventually reached the shop and went to search for some wine. The usual variety of New World wines were on display quietly showing off their cool, minimalist branded labels, luring the naive shopper to buy them. I had heard that the French cheaper wine market is suffering from lack of 'branding', as the French tend to display the place, not the grape in bold on the front label, and do not add spin and uber cool logos. As a result of this the French are going to change, and take on the New World market with designer branding for their cheaper wines. If this stops some French wine makers going out of business that is a good thing, but I don't like the sound of flashy labels, I love the idea of discovering the understated. Perhaps the best solution is to educate the public to be more discerning, and to go for content not looks.

So with some New Zealand wine I left the shop, my pace slackening as my phone lit up with a text message....