Oxegen Music Festival, the sell out festival

Having recently returned from a weekend in Manchester, which is incidental,  but coincided with Ireland’s biggest music festival, the Oxygen Festival, taking place; I was for some reason not in the slightest bit surprised by the fact that all that was reported on in the papers, both at home and in the UK, was the fact that the festival was marred by knife attacks, public disorder arrests and Amanda Brunkers pitiful attempt at her own public X Factor audition. All I wanted to hear about, not only from the papers but my friends,  was how good the Foo Fighters were, what bands performed well live and who didn’t. But the fact that Oxegen as a festival has sold out and moved away from ensuring a quality festival enjoyed by all, has made this type of news unimportant. Oxegen has created a well marketed and attended marketing dream which cares little about the music or what its crowd represents as long as the gate receipts are high and the acts keep coming for the money. The benchmark should be a Glastonbury which still represents a mature crowd they’re for the music ad that is reflected in acts such as Paul Simon still gracing (excuse the pun) the stage. Having attended the Oxegen Festival during its early years and seeing what it has evolved into one thing is very obvious to me; the organisers have forgotten its goal and sacrificed the music for the money. I just wish this wish they would reconsider their approach of creating a festival for under age masses to get drunk and ruin the weekends of those few who are there for the music.

Fashion Brands aim to exclude, yet the empire may be crumbling…

I was recently discussing my dislike for the principles and lack of morals of the luxury brand industry with an industry proponent, who argued that the industry didn’t aim to alienate and exclude people, but merely aimed ensure that their clothing and accessory products were seen as investments, of superior quality; so naïve and off the mark in my opinion. The reality is that the whole aim in marketing luxury brands is to alienate and exclude. As former LVMH marketing insider Mark Ritson cites: fashion houses such as LVMH “preach the need to alienate and exclude entire audiences from their brand just to create exclusivity.” It’s the same as the yobbo doorman refusing you entry into a pretentious city centre night club. In reality, the club is just as good as the normal club a few doors up; but because not everyone is permitted access it creates a superior lofty reputation. Luxury brands do exactly the same. They’re products never reflect value for money because that would go against the premise and purpose of exclusivity. But all of this wonderful exclusion, despite its low morals, still garners support. LVMH still has its supporters and customers, which if not living in a world of exclusivity are more than happy to turn a blind eye to the low morals of a brand who purposefully must bring down others and exclude customer groups based on class for their own brand to be fully successful. All this however seems to be taking a bit of a hit with the recent recession with more and more luxury brands being made available to the previously excluded customer segments. While I don’t believe in the prohibitive nature of fashion labels surely this is not a wise strategy to pursue as ultimately as much as I may dislike its moral makeup the industry and its products is based on excluding everyone but the select few who are willing to pay a premium price so that they to own products branded with Gucci, Dior etc as to let others know that only a select few can be part of the club.