Anxiety is a Product. And You’re A Target Consumer

“It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.”

David Foster Wallace

New York Times

Go to the list.

We’re all anxious. Economically anxious, socially anxious, anxious for the future, for our careers, our health… The list goes on, and I’m not trying to remind you that. Nor am I trying to recommend a potential cure or clarify the core reasons behind you crippling anxiety. But, I can remind you this: Your anxiety is a product. And you’re a consumer.

Alex Prager

“I came, I saw, I had anxiety, so I left”, a t-shirt from TeePublic reads. The mass relativity of its humour doesn’t only come from the remade phrase’s recognition, but also from its relation to our everyday lives. And if it’s relatable, it sells. We’re bombarded with self-love, self-help, self-development, self-coaching - an amalgam of false positive buzzwords that morph into dysfunctional narcissism. How many professions have appeared - gurus, masters, something-something-someting-o-therapists? How many different mental exercises, “top tips”, “ultimate guides”? At the end of the day, our swamped routines leave us gasping for breath, but some stuff remains lacking or unfinished. And there will always be at least something undone. It’s a chronic disease in the design of our everyday lives.

Midjourney

Kyle Mullholand “Why We’re Being Sold Our Own Anxiety”: “From fidget spinners and meditation apps to Himalayan salt lamps and CBD, the market is flooded with a huge range of weird tat that promise miraculous, anxiety-killing properties. A stand-out product is the gravity blanket. The funding goal for this blanket was around $21,000, but the amount raised was in excess of $4 million because people want to sleep so much that they couldn’t stop throwing money at a weighty blanket.”

This curation attempts to explain why, bizarrely, anxiety is an ever-green business idea, and how it found an untapped market.