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本帖最后由 Edinburgh 于 2011-1-17 06:30 编辑
When Parker Pens Ruled
I wasn't exactly sure why Parker Pens picked Kelly Bensimon as the spokesmodel for its relaunch Tuesday night at the Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle. I'd seen her as my wife watched "The Real Housewives of New York," and she seemed miscast; how much contrived angst, hatred and conflict can you generate when you were born with the genetic equivalent of a royal flush? But my wife came in this morning and suggested that if I plan to write about Ms. Bensimon I shouldn't neglect her behavior on the reality-TV series, using adjectives such as "viper-like" and "out-of-control" to describe her. Then she checked with our daughter who also watches the program, and Gracie seconded her assessment.
Ms. Bensimon seemed perfectly civilized when I buttonholed her at the event. It featured a light show projected against the building's exterior, and we were all expected, Ms. Bensimon included, to abandon the cocktail party and brave subfreezing temperatures to watch it.
My gripe isn't with Kelly Bensimon. It's with popular culture. Wouldn't it make more sense to trot out someone like Tom Wolfe or Jonathan Franzen or Malcolm Gladwell if you're trying to celebrate the art of writing? My friend Anne Sommers, who attended the party with me and who's a far better reporter than I am, as well as an obviously more intelligent person because she chose to remain behind when the rest of us ventured across to Columbus Circle's center island, said she used the hiatus to ask a PR person why Ms. Bensimon was picked.
She was told something about how they knew she was a perfect fit after she tweeted something about thank-you notes being a big deal to her, and that she was indeed a legitimate writer, thank you, because she's the former editor of Elle Accessories.
But I didn't attend the party to pile on the former supermodel—who seemed cordial, even confiding to me (before she confided the same thing to everybody else when she took the microphone) that when asked by her father what she wanted as a college graduation gift she said a pen. Nor do I intend to disrespect Parker Pens.
I came because I love Parker Pens. If Cross pen and pencil sets represented the Bentleys of writing implements when I was growing up, the Parker "Jotter" was the Cadillac. You stood a little taller—even if your parents still had to hire you a math tutor or you never mastered diagramming sentences or understood what their point was in the first place—knowing one of these handsome fellows was clipped to your shirt pocket. Also, they came in different colors so you could collect or trade them with your friends.
However, I thought I better do some research before I reported to the pen company's cocktail party, because these days Bics and Uniball Rollers are my pens of choice. Bics because they're really cheap and I'm never heartbroken when I lose one. And Uniballs because they have fine points and let me write between the lines on second drafts. So I walked over to Venture Stationers on Madison Avenue, which has one of the city's best pen selections. Stephen Ramkirpal, its high-end writing-instruments expert, tried quickly to bring me up to speed on where the pen industry is today.
For starters, companies like Parker and Cross have effectively been left in the dust, according to Mr. Ramkirpal, by the likes of Montblanc, Faber-Castell, Rebecca Moss, Dunhill and Cartier (and which probably also helps explain why Parker felt the urgency of throwing a relaunch with a reality-TV star). Pens have apparently followed a similar trajectory as watches, which were stopped dead in their tracks when technology was able to make even a drugstore Timex work as accurately as an Omega or a Patek Philippe. So some marketing and advertising guys decided to do what you always do when you're in need of a miracle in retail—be it politics or timepieces—which is to appeal to the most craven aspects of human nature, in this case by going upscale and making you believe that all your inadequacies will be addressed and ameliorated with the right pen, or car, or dishwasher.
"I think it has to do with the boom in the '90s," Mr. Ramkirpal said of his limited-edition pens in locked cases. "I remember a client of mine went to sign a contract on a house. Because the guy pulled out a Bic pen she walked out of the office. It's how you present yourself. People are ready to prejudge you."
The salesman said that he uses a Brazilian wood-trimmed Faber-Castell Pernambuco ballpoint which retails for less than $300 and reeks of modesty among numbered $9,000 Cartiers and an $18,000 Omas 18-karat-gold Jerusalem 3000 fountain pen. Mr. Ramkipal comes from Guyana, and the pens he sells cost more than some people's annual incomes in his native country. "When I go home and tell my friends what I do," he says, "they think I'm crazy."
Not so Penny McIntyre, Parker's group president for office products. "We have redesigned the entire Parker line," she told me at the party, adding something about, "high equity associated with brand," whatever that means.
And what is to become of my beloved Jotter? "We've redesigned the Jotter. It's gorgeous. We've elevated its status."
I must resist the temptation to go too hard on Parker, these days owned by Newell Rubbermaid, whose brands, believe it or not include PaperMate, which in my day played Lincoln Continental to Parker's Caddy. None other than Geoffrey S. Parker, great grandson of the company's founder, who also attended the Museum of Arts and Design festivities, admitted, "A lot of people have forgotten about the Jotter; a lot of people have forgotten about Parker." Something had to be done.
All I can say is hold on to your old Jotters. They're about to become collectibles. Indeed, they already are. Mr. Parker said he plans to publish a book about the pen in 2011. It comes on the heels of a well-received volume about Parker's "Vacumatic" fountain pen. "Each book deals with a different model," he explained.
Sign me up for a Kelly Bensimon autographed copy. |
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发表于 2011-1-17 14:19
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发表于 2011-1-18 17:59
估计泡过水的素颜风姿也会稍欠风骚
她的块头好壮，深目大嘴蒜头鼻--------必属战力旺盛一族，偶就不作怜香惜玉想啦。
不换大家都是一样的那个男孩子，怎么认得，但这个鸭子是我的第二个头像而已