Another rant on genuine vs. contrived!

It's funny, but sometimes I catch myself examining my own self from what seems, for a fraction of a second, an objective position. It always astounds me, in those circumstances, the number of things we take for granted that are patently absurd.

I was watching television (Seinfeld, I confess) and during the commercial break, when a woman openly thanked Turbo Tax for helping her do her taxes so easily, I caught myself remembering Twitchell's words about humans needing to personalize their relationships with products and services. "Turbo Tax", in this commercial, was no longer just a piece of software, it was "an accountant in a box", someone with whom a user could have a "relationship" and, evidently, openly thank on television.

When I wrote of the contrived nature of trying to create a storyline to which consumers will identify, I think what I'm getting at in essence is that, while certain items in our world evolved and grew to be culturally significant (think of the VW Beetle or Slinky), they weren't devised with an elaborate narrative meant to create a bond with consumers. Rather, it's my impression that the narrative grew "organically," successively layered by generations of consumers. As such, the narrative is genuine, born of a longstanding relationship with users.

The question I am now left to ask myself is, Are there any examples of instances where a product narrative was created piecemeal, and the product in question went on to become a cultural success? The reason this is interesting to me is that I deem myself impervious to those contrived attempts to bond with me through the use of a plastic narrative, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. If I can find one such example of a product with which I personally bonded, I'll have proven that I'm maybe not as immune as I think I am.

I'm sure there are examples, but I'll have to think about it. More later.