Overused Words: The Commodification of "Artisanal"

An accounting firm "honoring artisanal principles"?

Of course, we've always heard of artisans. They were . . . artists, craftspeople, who could fashion functional and lovely artifacts, shining with the obvious human touch. Labor and human dignity mutually uplift each other in the act of creation.

We've all thought of a world in which we could all be artisans of some sort. Well, if you can't slow down and sell your wares at some farmer's market, why not just appropriate "artisanal" for your own work? We should be surprised that it took the rest of us so long to become artisans in our own right.

I gather that this still smokin' hot marketing term began with "artisanal" cheese, pizza, wine, and cocktail makers, i.e., amidst the culinary arts. It lends an air of secular sanctity and indisputable quality to any endeavor to which it is attached. It has not the slightest negative connotations unless you prefer fast-food and other slipshod vulgarities; it's redolent of the elegant aesthetic arising from time-honored craftsmanship carried out . . . by hand!!!

So, sure . . . cheese, pizza, cocktails and wine. Maybe bookbinding, stained glass, landscape architecture, etc.

But then someone in a marketing firm or an ad agency -- professions that often hollow words out, extracting their meaning and leaving only a shell that can be commodified -- must've said, "Hey, why can't, say, uh, credit default swap creation be a craft? Aren't they created . . . by hand . . . sort of . . . so . . . YES!"

And, sure enough, like a meme, "artisanal" soon attached to goods and services not normally associated with the hand-crafted care of some craftswoman working in her studio or workshop. I read of an accounting firm "guided by artisanal principles."

"This space-heater, featuring a design handed down for years by artisans of the craft, is . . . ," well, it's artisanal!!! What else do you need to know?

Soon, we'll all be doing artisanal work: I'll teach and administrate using artisanal principles, my dental hygienist will purr about her artisanal teeth-cleaning , the TSA people at airports will work to secure air travel with time-honored artisanal practices, my stockbroker . . . no, my securities artisan will . . . well, you get the idea.

Teens don't use "artisanal" unless they grow up in foodie households. The teenage equivalent? "Amazing."

Next overused word, especially overused in marketing: "passion."