Gothamist: The New Yorker's Target Audience

Betsy Markum

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:13:22 -0500

I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $37218. Isn't that crazy!

BEN

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 21:33:58 -0500

ALL YOU F##KING RICH PEOPLE OR FEELING RICH WANNABE CAN GO TO HELL...

cookiecrumb

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 18:06:59 -0500

Oh, like you don't shop there! :D

findley

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 12:34:19 -0500

True, if you want to shop at Target, shop at Target. If you really need cheap phillipe starck napkin rings, go for it. If you'd rather buy all your produce from whole foods and ignore the farmers' market then go ahead and enjoy it while it's here. This shit travels thousands of miles in 18-wheelers to reach you - so while we still have the fuel to power this kind of long-range consumerist econonmy, buy it now. Because when we don't, and target goes away, you're going to want your neighborhood back. Some of us love our convenient, cheap, and meaningless household products. Some of us love our neighbors, our businesses, and our city - and are depressed as all hell about the indifference over what it's becoming.

eben

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:44:33 -0500

i must say that the ads are, well, beautiful. target hired some damn fine illustrators. as an illustrator myself (one who is very impressed by this collection of talent, a bit starstruck & jealous tool), i am very fond of companies that use there advertising budgets to visually interesting ends. does it have their logo in it? yes. but hey, illustration is a commercial art. did they take over the new yorker? yes, but doesn't the new yorker do this every other month or so with their "special advertising sections" that double the size of the magazine. i find this version much more appealing.of the evil megastores, i must say that target is quite inoffensive to me, and at least they seem to care about the community they are in, anyone notice that they gave a ton of money to help restore BAM. (feel free to flame me with articles of their horrible business practices, i admit that i don't know all that much about them as a company).

enigmaticjack

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:37:32 -0500

I don't much fucking care one way or another about Target in Manhattan. OTOH, the utter and complete saturation of the issue of the New Yorker with Target imagery, coloration and branding is dizzying and nauseating. Literally, its on almost every other page... down to the fucking blow-in subscription cards!

Paul

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:29:36 -0500

Manhattan (the island, not the conceptual social symbol) is already full of bland middle-class commercialism, and it's not supported by midwestern tourists alone. Target wouldn't tip the balance. Will you stop buying the New Yorker now too, to protest its sellout to such a "suburban" brand?

mrf

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:24:20 -0500

if you don't like target than don't shop there! it's not like anyone is forcing thousands of people to go to the one in downtown brooklyn every day.

hijiki

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:10:13 -0500

they might be a little out of control, but starbucks opened the door for most of those local coffee shops. that specialty coffee market really didn't exist in america. they also give back to communities and have helped to mainstream organic and fair trade practices. they're not all bad.

sp

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:57:53 -0500

also the fact that these huge nationwide chains kill small locally owned businesses. The Barnes& Noble, Starbucks, Home Depot effect is devastating.

sp

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:22:01 -0500

janine, obviously New York isnt devoid of consummerism. Its the TYPE of consumerism that I object to and the political agenda hidden behind it: homogenous. Like basil said, when youre inside one of those stores, you really could be anywhere. New York's identity was built on diversity, and all these franchise stores and restaurants serve only one purpose: to smooth over diversity to make one culture. its much easier to market to a homogenous group than one made up of lots of different tastes. Target, Starbucks, Walmart, Applebees etc are the enemy of New York's culture. Moose, we posted almost at the same time, I didnt see your post until after mine went up. Apologies.

Max

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:41:43 -0500

Well, it definately made the non-target art pop more- not trying for the pun, but if you liked it, you are welcome.

nycer

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:32:03 -0500

I always thought Marble Hill was in the Bronx... so I looked it up. What an interesting history! Thanks for the NYC geography lesson, who knew it would come out of a discussion about Target.

priya

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:29:54 -0500

There's two in Queens. The one on Woodhaven Blvd is always stocked. Take the E/F to Roosevelt Ave/Jackson Heights and switch to the R/G/V to Woodhaven Boulevard. Exit the station to the right and walk straight past the McDonalds, past the Queens Center Mall and past the White Castle. It's in a huge circular building with a Macy's Furniture and Best Buy. It takes 20 minutes to get there from 53rd/Lex. i loved the New Yorker ads. Especially Ruben Toledo's on the back cover.

basil

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:26:31 -0500

I agree w/ "sp" above. We don't NEED Target. Gothamist might like the ads, but we don't need the corporate crap that's behind the ads. I went to the Target in downtown White Plains last year thinking it would be fun to see what they have considering they have the Mossimo and Mizrahi lines. I was there for less than five minutes when I freaked out thinking I could be at any Target in Texas (my home state) or anywhere else in the country and be in the same miserable bleached setting. PLEASE don't advocate for these corporations to spread throughout the city. There are plenty of good vendors throughout the city that can provide you w/ the same merchandise AND/OR better quality. It may cost money - but these vendors need to sale items to keep their businesses running & their staff fairly compensated to participate in this city. Sometimes I fear that Gothamist itself is becoming too focused on selling stuff to us in the guise of cool things happening in the city when it's really an advertisement for something.

MooseAndSquirrel

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:51:06 -0500

sp and janine didn't read my first comment about the Target in Marble Hill -- which is part of Manhattan!! Learn your NYC geography, people. (Oh, and there's also a Target on 20th Ave. in College Point, which I believe was the first in the five boros.)

janine

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:30:57 -0500

Wow, is there a Target in the Bronx? Where? ...and sp is right. I was just walking along 5th Avenue the other day thinking, "Thank god New York is devoid of consumerism, its purity unblemished." Seriously, NYC caters to every consumer whim. I don't know how many Targets we need in the City, but I do know how many more uninformed rants we don't need. I'd like the two K-Marts to be converted into Targets, however. I'd prefer them gone altogether, but empty store fronts look like blight and would likely be even more depressing than the existing K-Marts.

YO

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:18:41 -0500

I would love to see what that dink Bucky Turdco from the DOPE underground NYC magazine Animal has to say about this. Brotha is a marketing madman, yo! Shoot me.

Dave H.

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:14:23 -0500

Interesting that you bring up Gibson's Pattern Recognition. I think the extreme branding of this issue of The New Yorker would give Cayce Pollard the world's largest panic attack. "He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." Repeat.

joe

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:12:52 -0500

The city should work with the MTA to get Target, Walmart, Costco, and Home Depot to all put stores on the Westside railyards site with the condition that the stores are the companies largest outlets in the country.

Jack

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:08:24 -0500

There's a Target in downtown Brooklyn that is less than a 1/2 from most of lower Manhattan via Subway. I know Manhattan-centrism is 'de rigueur', but many of the most active parts of the outer boroughs are easier to get to than most places in Manhattan.

sp

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:33:54 -0500

theres a Target in the South Bronx maybe two blocks at most from the 1 Train. Thats enough, we dont need any more of that crap in the city. If you absolutely must indulge your suburban homogenic low quality bland consumerist cravings, short of moving out of the city which you should pobably, please do us all a favor and go up there. Dont encourage them to take over a whole city block in Manhattan and kill off a dozen or so small businesses.

MooseAndSquirrel

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:26:31 -0500

"How about...a Target in Manhattan?" Since Marble Hill is part of Manhattan, and there's a Target in Marble Hill, there already *is* a Target in Manhattan. (Unless you insist that it's really in Kingsbridge.)