This
really is too good to be true. Ancient Grains
is one of the best examples I've seen of the 90s phenomenon my friend
and I dubbed "tope. "
Derived from
"Fruitopia"
-- Coca-Cola's failed entrant into the 'new age beverage' category (what we at CF like to call
'gentrified Kool-Aid') popularized by Snapple
and Arizona Iced Tea -- tope
is an aesthetic created largely by Benetton ("United Colors")
and "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Dominant
in the early and mid-90's, tope is basically imagery and color schemes
that reflect multiculturalism and neo-tribalism, usually as part
of sales message. Whether
based on actual historical imagery, or invented right at the ad
agency, tope imagery connotes such things as "Mexican-ness", "African-ness,"
and any other ethnic-nesses. It is somewhat difficult to peg
down with words alone and is best delineated by example. When
Star Trek: The Next Generation or (especially)
the Voyager series "Chinese
up" some actor and dress him/her in a multi-colored getup as
a convenient way to create a new alien race, that's friggin'
tope. (See also our pages on the
Rainforest Cafe and Applebee's "Aztec Salad.")
Below: Random artifact retrieved from
the Culture Freak archives. Tommy Paradise's Freaktopia.
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