The Rebel Sell Worked On Me
Even though I was just a 10-year-old boy, I still remember the moment Hulk Hogan, pulled out the black and white nWo (New World Order) shirt and turned his back on the WCW and betrayed his partner with a leg drop. Hogan was the good guy! He was the Real American! Fight for the rights of every man! How could he do that? The nWo were street thugs breaking all the rules, trying to take over my beloved Monday night wrestling experience.
WCW Announcer: “I have been with you for so many years, for you to join up with the likes of these two men absolutely makes me sick to my stomach! And I think that these people here (points to the crowd) and a lot of other people around the world have had just about enough of this man (pointing at Nash), this man (pointing at Hall), and you want to put yourself in this group? You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Hogan: “Well, the first thing you gotta realize, brother, is this right here is the future of wrestling! You can call this the New World Order of wrestling, brother!”[1]
Watching this as a 10-year boy, my feelings went from betrayal and hopelessness but quickly turned into excitement as I clenched my fist and decided I too was on the side of the nWo. Down with the system!
The Rebel Sell worked on me. And just like that, the WCW stepped into one of its most successful and lucrative storylines in professional wrestling history.
Here’s proof of my entertainment choices below. (Courtesy of my mom finding this picture for me.) I’m second to the left, 10 years old at a 1999 live WCW event.
And from a young age, I became a rebel at heart and bought into the counterculture movement. Of course what I didn’t realize at the time is that I was actually just joining the mainstream consumer culture with new packaging. I myself had joined the system allured by the marketing scheme of being a rebel, which ironically was all theatre and still owned by the same company. A gimmick to keep me interested as I was aging out of wrestling, and slowly coming to the realization that it wasn’t actually real. *gasp*
This is a perfect analogy of Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter’s thesis of their book Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture. This book is a new title rerelease of their book The Rebel Sell, but as far as I can tell it is completely identical. I suppose the new title was more catchy and would sell more copies. (Go capitalism!) Or maybe the Che Guevara image on the original cover was too rebellious? For those who don’t know, that Che Guevara logo is the most reproduced image of all time, “Versions of it have been painted, printed, digitized, embroidered, tattooed, silk-screened, sculpted or sketched (in other words, commoditized) on nearly every surface imaginable.”[2]
Heather & Potter argue that there no longer exists a counterculture. Both counterculture and our current real culture still exist within the same system and lead to the same end: more consumerism. Heath and Potter claim that its actually ironic people feel rebellious as they but the non-mainstream brand when in reality they are subject to the “anti-establishment” marketing scheme. Heath & Andrew bring up the point that many who rebel against capitalism and the establishment are rebelling against conformity when in reality capitalism thrives on non-conformity. This is because Capitalism is able to give you the special sauce and anyone else’s special sauce that there is a demand for.
As I study this book, and the original concept, I could not stop thinking of the movie Fight Club. A movie that was released just a few years after my transformative nWo experience, but a movie that I did not see until I was an adult. Nowadays I say that people can’t fully understand my generation, the Millennials, until they’ve seen the movie Fight Club. Fight Club is the anti-consumerism movie that crucifies front-runner brands like IKEA and Starbucks. The protagonist (who is never given a name throughout the entire movie, and is listed as “Narrator” in the credits) wonders as he flips through an IKEA magazine “what kind of dining set defines me as a person?”. Of course ironically, with him being nameless throughout the movie, he has no identity, precisely because of the mass marketed furniture and lifestyle he has bought into. All the while there is a Starbucks cup in literally every frame of the entire movie. Seriously. All of this searching of the Narrator’s identity climaxes with the revelation of Tyler Durden and the literal explosion of giant corporations.
What’s ironic, is that I have loved this movie Fight Club for years but only now realize that the message of anti-establishment and rebellion being promoted to me is being sent through the medium of a big budget mainstream movie with some of the most popular actors on the planet. The Rebel Sell worked on me again.
What’s my big takeaway? Well, my maximizer brain actually applauds this method and instead of problem-solving what to do with this quirk in our system, I simply want to to take note of this curious human behavior to be attracted to the rebels and see how can I use it for my own means.
Heath and Potter are right. The message, “don’t be a drone like those other guys… buy this product” works. Am I part of the evil corporation now that I want to use this for my own promotional means?
Side note
Perhaps you’ve heard this church slogan across many churches in America. “A church for people who don’t like church.” The problem is, people have been saying that for decades! But more churches keep being planted under the brand “we’re not like those others guys.” And I think it’s effective. I like it. (Hollow as it may be.)
Bibliography
“Guerrillero Heroico.” Wikipedia. February 18, 2018. Accessed February 23, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrillero_Heroico.
Heath, Joseph, and Andrew Potter. Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture. HarperBusiness, 2009.
“New World Order (professional Wrestling).” Wikipedia. February 22, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(professional_wrestling).
WWEFanNation. “Legends of the Fall No. 1: Hulk Hogan & NWO.” YouTube. September 10, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hILCw66sLU.
[1] “New World Order (professional Wrestling),” Wikipedia, February 22, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Order_(professional_wrestling).
[2] “Guerrillero Heroico,” Wikipedia, February 18, 2018, accessed February 23, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrillero_Heroico.
7 responses to “The Rebel Sell Worked On Me”
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Hey Kyle, Great post man. I very much resonated with this (one of my fav movies): “What’s ironic, is that I have loved this movie Fight Club for years but only now realize that the message of anti-establishment and rebellion being promoted to me is being sent through the medium of a big budget mainstream movie with some of the most popular actors on the planet. The Rebel Sell worked on me again.” I also appreciated your response to the book being that you will simply take note and be aware of the claims that are being made and simply not to buy into the a claim that may appear attractive but is actually part of the problem. There’s part of me that wants to respond, “I’m still going to be drawn to anti-establishment notions when they come my way, but I just won’t be duped into thinking that I’m actually making a difference simply by doing so.”
Kyle’s post worked on me again, you just have a way with words my friend. And you were such a cute little kid rooting on Hulk Hogan with your friends. You also made me feel completely out of it for the fact that I have not seen Fight Club. Definitely on my watch list now. I also loved how the authors highlighted the fact that everyone’s efforts to be a countercultural rebel actually failed. I also like how you are taking this rebel attitude and using it to accomplish your means.
Thanks, Kyle, for educating me on Hulk Hogan and Fight Club. We were living in South America during the nineties and so there are some cultural references that I completely miss because I wasn’t connected during those years. For years I had thought Fight Club was a boxing movie.
Hi Kyle,
I found out the first title of this book was the title they released in Canada. The second title, the one you referred to, is the changed title they released to the United States. And you are correct, it was to them a better title to sell more books.
This knowledge kinda ruined it for me, as a book railing on consumerism had to change their title to be more consumeristic.
That it my problem with the whole rebel movement, as folks are rebels when it benefits themselves. But, when conformity benefits me, I gravitate that way.
But maybe I am the only one who sees things this way?
Kylle,
I am Jack’s Raging bile duct…A move that hates corporate greed, driven by it to make a bunch of money. I am much older than you but in the late 90s I was drawn back to my love of wrestling because of the nWo, and yet I cheered hardest for Goldberg…Made me sick to see him lose to Hogan.
Great post I appreciate your insight at the end, how do I use this to reach people for Christ, love it man.
Jason
Okay…a few problems with your post buddy!! First, did you just say that wrestling wasn’t real?!? HOW DARE YOU! LOL. Second, did you really cheer for dark hulk? Between Hulk Hogan and Sting turning to the darkside, I had to hang up my tights after that (live with the visual people). And lastly, when you are the baby in the class, you do not remind everyone else how old they were back in 1999. Come on!! Okay, so actually, great post. It is one thing for us all to point out the struggle the church faces with consumerism, but it is also necessary for us all to admit that we have all probably been part of the problem at times as well. I was always the new kid in school; which as a result, there is always that desire to fit in. When do you cross the line; when do you break the rules or submit? Though I may not have followed Hulk Hogan through the dark years…I must admit that there have been times in my life when I sold out to the consumerism idea.
Hey Kyle,
Had to smile as I read your post– thank you for sharing and thinking this through, while applying it to yourself and to Hulk Hogan! I think this idea strikes a cord with us, especially we who are part of the “counter-culture” of the church, especially when we look around at all the marketing and packaging that comes with contemporary Christian faith so many times. I think there is something in us that wants to rebel, that wants to be unique and different (and special?)– maybe it comes from our own imago-dei-ness… but yes, we’ve been easily captured by the marketing guru’s of the counterculture.