Counter-signalling or signalling: it's all about status

This column from Rory Sutherland looks at the phenomenon of "countersignalling" or conspicuous non-consumption.

Counter-signalling or signalling: it's all about status

Rory SutherlandOgilvy

When is rebellion not rebellion? When it's really a way of showing off your social status.

Narrowing down the best things Jeremy Bullmore has ever said will never be easy – but among his finest aperçus belongs a single sentence he dropped in passing during a lunch 10 years ago, so the least I can do is record it here in print.

"There is a world of difference," he remarked, "between turning up at a black-tie function in your day clothes because you have chosen not to get...

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