In the March 2006 issue of Harper's Magazine, senior editor Bill Wasik finally shares the tale of his social experiment nicknamed the "flash mob" phenomenon. The magazine is posting segments of the article over the next few weeks on its web site, but you can read the piece in its entirety in the newsstand edition.
It's extremely well-written and often funny, while offering an eye-opening view into what motivates hipsters and those who market to them. Here is a link to part one of the online version.
An excerpt:
"Not only was the flash mob a vacuous fad; it was, in its very form (pointless aggregation and then dispersal), intended as a metaphor for the hollow hipster culture that spawned it.
"My association with the fad has heretofore remained semi-anonymous, on a first-name-only basis to all but friends and acquaintances. For more than two years, I concealed my identity for scientific purposes, but now that my experiment is essentially complete, corporate America having fulfilled (albeit a year later than expected) its final phase, I finally feel compelled to offer a report: on the flash mob, its life and times, and its consummation this summer in the clutches of the Ford Motor Company."
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