Duck Dynasty and The Deception of Conservatism

[discocrisco01]

As I walked into Target on Saturday on my normal grocery shopping, I saw a huge billboard depiciting of all this Duck Dynasty merchandise. A thought popped into my head. I started to realize all of this Duck Dynasty is all about money and merchandising and notabout the cultural wars As Businessweek reports

Days after Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the featured family, unleashed a stream of controversial comments about gay people and African Americans in an interview with GQ magazine, Target’s (TGT) Web store is still stocked with DVDs and books tied to the popular TV show.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) has a wider array of Duck Dynasy merchandise, including pink-camouflage linens and a child-size all-terrain vehicle.

STORY: How Cable TV's Ascendancy Explains the Duck Dynasty Culture War
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBRL) quickly backtracked on a decision to yank Duck Dynasy merchandise from its restaurants, after a social media outcry.

“Our intent was to avoid offending, but that’s just what we’ve done,” the company posted on its Facebook (FB) page Dec. 22. “ … You flat out told us we were wrong. We listened.”

Meanwhile, a Carnival (CCL) cruise ship featuring the Duck Commander gang will set sale July 17. Premier Christian Cruises, which chartered the vessel, said on its website that the voyage is sold out and berths are no longer available"

These guys are selling merchandise at my local Target in Anaheim which is very diverse community that does not have a large demographic that it is in Duck Dynasty key demographic.

Yet, they are all over the place selling out cruises and selling merchandise at target. I might be cynical, but this whole Robertson scandal might be a massive PR blitz to sell merchandise.

It really means that these guys are not the conservative heroes that the right-wing claim they are. Rather, they are free-market swindlers who sell the "Duck Dynasty" to gulliable conservative audience that wants to believe in the concept of backwoods Southern values.

It is people who want to return the images of the Southern rural believe of God, Guns, and freedom. It is mythology that Southern people want to believe in to hold on their traditional values.

In fact, the people who follow the Robertson clan are actually being duped by the system that they supposed to worship as a "God". The Robertson put on the masequade of God, Guns, and faith as just another to make a quick buck off a gullable and eager public that is looking for someway to hold onto fading away of traditional values.

The capitalist system that is promoted Duck Dynasty is a imperfect system that needs extensive government oversight to prevent it from running amuck. The Duck Dynasty people are just another group of merchants just trying to quick buck of the American Public.

The question that people need to ask themselves: Why I am supporting these people when the ir real purpose is to make money off me?

But is that the point of any good capitalist? And Phil Robertson is excellent capitalist and should be studied as a case study in B-School of successful product marketing.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Earliest I remember was Walt Disney standing there...

never actually telling us to buy stuff, but we kids absolutely had to have MM ears and coonskin caps and our parents always gave in.

Marketing works, and if they could sell us Pet Rocks, we're suckers for anything.

[loudsue]

2. Luckily, a great many of us have gotten wise to their tactics, and we're holding onto our $$

for things that matter to us in the long run.

We had the lowest dollar Christmas this year than we've ever had....and in the rural south, where everyone falls hook-line&sinker for everything that resembles "tradition", that's saying something.

I just cringe when I realize how the capitalist machine is SUCKING money out of the American people, and Americans are falling for it....especially the younger generation, and parents of that generation. We had five & six-year-olds getting ipads for Christmas. WTF???

Of course...they have to! If they don't, they will be "left behind" at school and in their future.

There is something so fucking wrong with this whole picture.

[catbyte]

3. I wonder if his statements advocating child rape will get as much media scrutiny.

My bet is no, but it's just as heinous. Let's see what his fundy bigot fans say to defend THAT.