Hand Sanitizer: The New Precious Jewels

Well, this time, I would like to be such a smarty-pants. I am going to discuss about something which sorta makes me pay attention to. I want to apologize in advance if this writing is kinda too subjective or else, but for sure, I mean no harm. I am just slobbering around. So, now the topic is about a small stuff, literally. Have you ever noticed these days people like to hang something eye-catchy at their backpacks or handbags? Do you notice that little eye-catchy bottle hanging there? Those little colorfully eye-burning items are hand sanitizers! Can you believe it? I bet you do since you must have seen them everywhere nowadays, at campus, malls, restaurants, café, office, or even you have one of them. Those fancy hand sanitizer are sorta popular these days. So actually, what is interesting on them until they become such must-have item?

Those fancy little hand sanitizer is named “Bath and Body Works Pocketbac” hand sanitizers. They are quite fancy since they have so many various unique scents, for instance Japanese Cherry Blossoms, Lemon Sugar Frizz, Warm Vanilla, Dancing Water, Creamy Pumpkin, Golden Dust, even they have Rain Scented, how startling, eh? This unintelligibly various fragrance makes people curious enough to buy and try it even though the price is not that affordable. I mean, you have to spend around 60.000 until 150.000 rupiahs to get one of those fancy hand sanitizers. It is quite expensive for a hand sanitizer, I suppose. Nevertheless, this kind of cute little sweet-scented item becomes celebrity. It is like people are fancing them. It is becoming the item people fond of. I wonder why people still eager to buy them although, in my own perspective, the price is not reasonable for a hand sanitizer since we know that there are still a lot of hand sanitizers out there which you can get even only by spending less than 10.000 rupiahs. Is that necessary to do? Is true that they do that for the sake of their sanitary needs? Or is there any hidden motivation behind that consuming product?

            Nowadays, buying and consuming something has more expanded meaning for people. The purpose is not only for fulfilling needs but also for particular aims, for instance prestige. According to Jean Baudrillard, at this postmodern society, consuming products is similar to consuming symbol and image. For this case, I don’t think that buying a 150.000 rupiah hand sanitizer is a needs, it is more than that. It could be for prestige. You “buy” and “consume” the prestige and pride due to your capability of buying so rather than really “consuming” the sanitary and cleanliness which are the main purposes of a hand sanitizer. The logic becomes like this, if you really need a hand sanitizer for the sake of your sanitary, why do you have to buy such an expensive one while there are still a lot of them which are more affordable and more bacteria-disinfectant? Therefore, it cannot be blamed if we predict that there is concealed reason of purchasing those expensive hand sanitizers, and prestige might be the one.

            Talking about prestige, I suppose it has to be shown off, something visible, something that people will aware and notice about. Since we are talking about the hand sanitizer, I wonder, are they noticeable enough for people? The answer is “yes, absolutely.” Do you remember where the owner put them? Inside the bag? Of course no. They hang them at the zipper hold or at the outside part of the bag. As I have mentioned before, even it has its own holder. And the holders are so much colourful and eye-catchy. Not only the eye-catchy colours, but the shapes are also so cute and funny. This kind of thing has to have purpose. In my humble opinion, it is made for getting people’s attention. This hand sanitizer turns to be jewelry, something that you can show to your friends and be proud of it. That you can afford a 150.000 rupiah hand sanitizer could be a sensible reason to label your self as “classy” or something I’m not really sure about, yet generally it surely have a relation to pride. In addition, the brand of the product itself, “Bath and Bodyworks” might be already considered as the brand for upper middle class people, not many people can afford all of their product. Related to the consumers, most of the buyers of this product are no longer those who are considered the upper middle class people. They are expanding. Nowadays, working class or middle class people attempt to afford them. It might be because they want to be considered equal to the upper class. They want that kind of label. This evidence quite supports the assumption that prestige and pride are the purpose of this fancy hand sanitizer phenomenon.

            Consumerism is all around us. People nowadays compulsively buy something that they should have not to. People tend to buy a lot of stuffs not for their needs, but to other else reasons. It might be prestige, image, self-branding, identity, self-recognition, or anything. It is not always clear who is to blame, yet for sure, nowadays, consuming is labelling.