Consumer Artifacts
Manufacturers frequently describe their products as classic, to distinguish the original from a new variety, or to imply qualities in the product. The Ford Consul Classic, a car manufactured 1961–1963, has the "classic" tag for no apparent reason. The iPod classic was simply called the iPod until the sixth generation, when classic was added to the name because other designs were also available - an example of a retronym. Coca-Cola Classic is the name used for the relaunch of Coca-Cola after the failure of the New Coke recipe change. Similarly, the Classic (transit bus), a transit bus manufactured from 1982–97, succeeded an unpopular futuristic bus design.
A classic can be something old that remains prized or valuable (but not an antique). Classic cars, for example, are recognised by various collectors' organisations such as the Classic Car Club of America, who regulate the qualifying attributes that constitute classic status.
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Famous quotes containing the word consumer:
“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied ... but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)