= 8/25/2010 ‘A Car Phone That Links People and The. Fhe New Hork Times: nytimes.com ‘April24, 1988 A Car Phone That Links People and Their Desires [By KATHERINE BISHOP, Special tothe New York Times LOS ALTOS, Calif— Heaven knows, i's hard to keep up. On your last trp to Pars, you dropped into Chichen Itza fra custom-made pigskin briftase, only to ative back at work and find some 26-year-old witha new $2,500 aligator mode be sapped up in San Francisco whi his Ferrari was being serviced, But help has arrived. In this upper-middle-class community about 40 mies south of San Francisco they understand these sorts of pressures, and someone has taken the fst smal step to relieve them. A tiny company here called Faux Systems has created the Cellular Phoney, an inexpensive replica car phone that looks just lke the real thing. The company motto: "It's not what you own, 's what peop think you own." Apparently a lot of people akeady agree. Patricia Kvamme, the owner of Faux Systems, f surprised to have sold nearly 40,000 fake phones, most purchased in Los Angeles, where driving practically @ religious experience, For $16 ($9.95 on sak), status-seekers can buy a faux phone and a stick-on car antenna to create an ilsion of power and importance. ‘Really Popular With Yuppies FFake car phones dif from most other fake status symbols, which involve dedicated brand consciousness - fake Gucci handbags and Rolex watches, for example. Headlines, a store in San Francisco that does a brisk business in fake phones, ako sells knock-off of $140 Revo sungsses, "This stuffs realy popular with yuppies,” said a sales clerk, Thom Stewart ‘Thieves go for Reeboks, not just running shoes. That kind of'ilctstatus-secking has its ugly side: on the Fast ‘Coast in 1984, four people were killed and another person was stabbed by assailants who were affer their $200 Cazal eyeghss frames. Under such circumstances, a fake car phone coull come in handy. Some security: conscious buyers instal them a safety devices to give the appearance ofbeing able to cal for help. Buying a fake car phone & somewhat akin o sewing labels from expensive shops into chthing purchased at more modest establishments. Franco M. Nicosia, « professor atthe graduate school of Businss Administration a the University of Califia at Berkeley and a felow of the American Psychological Association, said such actions define a person's “aspirational reference group - the group they want to be part ofin the fur." Talking Behind His Back But status symbok are a tricky thing, and the social aspirant can easily become utterly confixed. Dr. Nicosia cites the example of former profissor who wrote a best-sling book and began driving a Jaguar XKE to ‘campus and parking tin the faculty parking ot next tothe dented Chevrolets and Fords. “He was trying to belong to academia with the wrong symbol" Dr. Nicosia said. "Everyone taed behind his back." Perhaps he was trying not to join the group, but to make a strong statement setting himself apart from it-sort of ‘the vehicular equivalent of Tom Wolfe's white suits. Sometimes people are making a statement "ejecting a certain membership and want to express it vehemently,” Dr. Nicosia said. (One abo has to select a symbol that is recognized, valued and available, "Ifthere are no car phones in your area, yt. cony/.farver-phwarre-tat-liihs ye\ = 9/25/2010 ‘A Car Phone That Links People and The. there's no appeal tothe fk phone,” Ms. Kvamme sad. "Its not going to work in North Dakota." Photo of imitation cellar car phones for sale ata store in San Francisco. (NYT/Terrence McCarthy) Copyright 2010 The New YorkTimes Company | Home | PrhacyPoly | Seareh | Conectons |_xML|| Help| ConaetUs | Back'a Top ‘ivtimes.com/.../a-car-Dhone-that-nks- ae