Hungry But Chic

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Just as someone would like to think that the zero-size sick trend of the previous decade was almost over, it strikes back again, but this time with a big difference, as it is not addressed to a specific social group, namely women, but to society as a whole. The picture above (unfortunately, I do not have any info on who took the image and therefore it is not credited) was taken a few days ago in Ermou St., Athens, Greece, one of the busiest shopping streets in the country and what ‘used to be the 10^th richest shopping street in the world’ in capitalist terms. On the right side of the picture we see the shop window of FOKAS retailer company (some of its employees have not been paid since the summer), where the slogan ‘HUNGRY BUT CHIC’ is being displayed with bold capitals (as part of KOOKAI’s current advertisement campaign). David Bate states in Photography: The Key Concepts that ‘ In the field of advertising a product requires social meanings to make it attractive’ (p. 112). One could easily note then, that the aforementioned ad slogan has not only failed to make a product attractive, but perhaps most importantly and taking into account the hardships that the population of the country is experiencing, it could be seen and read as both provocative and of bad taste.

But let us go a step further. Isn’t the motto ‘HUNGRY BUT CHIC’ a confirmation that the human essence has been reduced to a mere image? Is it not that our times are driven by how things look like, rather than how things Really are? The slogan offers the consumer a way of veiling and displacing her Real condition and need, by dressing herself up in a ‘chic’ way. In real life conditions, if you are ‘hungry’ and dress in a ‘chic’ (or ‘warm’ or any other) way, you will still remain ‘hungry’, even though both food and clothing belong to our basic needs. Yet, the satisfaction of one need will not substitute the demand or urge to meet the other.

Furthermore, a closer reading of the motto leads us to a paradox, something that characterises capitalism inherently and proper. Beyond the obvious goof of the campaign, what it actually does is to reaffirm what defines the Real situation in Greece today; the motto underlines today’s political agenda of the Greek pro-European Union and Euro currency coalition government (ND, PASOK and DIMAR). In an effort to ‘save’ the country, large amounts of money are being ‘borrowed’ by the troika, while at the same time unpopular austerity measures are being introduced to society. With the release of every new sum of billions of Euros from the foreign creditors, the coalition government is voting new austerity measures and vice versa, something that has resulted a large part of the population being unable to make ends meet. As the Greek Minister of Finance, Yannis Stournaras recently put it: ‘With 500 euros, you cannot live’, obviously reffering to the new cuts on the minimum wage (the minimum monthly gross wage has been reduced from 751, 39 Euros to 586, 08 and the unemployment rate exceeds 25%).  

A comparison between the zero-size models and the socio-political situation in Greece is anavoidable. It seems that the models had to do anything the industry requested them in order for the former to be able to fit in the designers’ dresses and to make it on the catwalk. It was the only way to reach ‘success’, no matter the threat of anorexia hitting the female models. The same applies today to the population of Greece. Greece’s fashion designers, troika and the country’s political elite demand from the people to be ‘hungry’, but in style, in other words to be deprived of every dignity and right, but still be able to be on the European Union’s catwalk. This was actually the dream of every government that took power in recent years, to be in the EU and Euro Zone at all costs, supported with notorious statements that have already made History, such as that of former Prime Minister George Papandreou, who was claiming in 2010 that ‘There is enough money’ (‘Λεφτά υπάρχουν!’). (According to reports, he had already asked for the intervention of the IMF since 2009...).

What we have to deal with here then, is not just an ad campaign which generally provokes the popular sentiment, but the reproduction of the ideological stance of capitalism in general and the greek coalition government in particular. The ideological and political ‘deal’ was that any sollution other than what the troika had to offer, would bring the country in absolute chaos and poverty (remember the fear of the European political and media establishment had to face in the possibility that reformist in Marxist terms -and not radical left as its name has it- SYRIZA would take power). That was the motto and climate of terror of last June’s elections, mediated by mainstream media worldwide and the coalition political parties, which were obliged to the troika. What was actually achieved was to continue propagating the illusionary European Dream, sometimes apropos and others in line with the American one, which up to date has achieved in putting the people of all southern european countries (Cyprus has also been recently added to the list) in a labyrinth of uncertainty and dispair.

The political situation therefore echoes loudly KOOKAI’s slogan ‘Hunger, but Chic’ (Of course, I do not equate or compare here the hunger a Greek or other southern European is facing, with that that millions of people in developing countires have to affront everyday for years now for very parallel reasons). That was the fixed bet, that Greece would by all odds and at all costs stay in the Euro Zone, as a ‘proud’ member of the ‘holy’ European family. The Portuguese, Italians, Greece, Spanish (the derogatory acronym PIGS is often used to refer to those countries) and Cypriots are on the catwalk and the world stares with apathy, while the flashes are now directed towards Oslo, where the European leaders collected yesterday night their Nobel Peace Prize. However, the more the time passes, little is left from their chicness, as you cannot have peace, without justice...