Paeroa: Place or Product?

This consumer commentary will explore locations which, by being linked to products, become advertisements and are consumed as commodities. These locations act as the product and the promotion

For this consumer commentary we will be taking a trip to small town New Zealand, a little place called Paeroa. This town is, in most ways, identical to every other small, hopeless town in New Zealand. Except for one thing; this town is the home of Lemon & Paeroa or L&P - a pop which is, as the label boasts, ‘world famous in New Zealand.’ Although this drink is now made by Coca Cola, it was traditionally made by mixing the mineral spring water found in the town with lemon juice and carbonating it. By naming the product L&P they automatically linked the town to the product, but to take it further they built not one but two giant L&P bottles in the town centre which serve as the main tourist attraction in this otherwise unremarkable town. Paeroa the place is consumed in conjunction with Lemon and Paeroa the product. Around New Zealand Paeroa is known primarily in its relationship to the soft drink – it functions as a constant, self sustaining advertisement. This raises questions; where does the town end and the advertisement begin? Without the consumer culture behind L&P, what would become of the town? Does the town serve as a platform for the advertisement, or is it the other way around?

On a grander scale this idea of consumer culture integrated into a real location can be applied to New Zealand as a whole in its global position as ‘Middle Earth’. Since its use as the location of the Lord of the Rings films, New Zealand is commodified and sold as Middle Earth to the rest of the world. This serves two purposes; firstly it increases tourism in New Zealand and secondly it creates a platform for the consumption of The Lord of the Rings. However, as much as the Middle Earth reputation increases New Zealand’s international recognition, it means that at the same time it is consumed as a single dimensional commodity. New Zealand becomes Middle Earth. It is consumed as Middle Earth. In fact, another small town in the North Island, Matamata, was officially renamed Hobbiton in conjunction with the release of the Lord of the Rings films.

It is important to note that this location advertisement is a two way interaction – Paeroa advertises L&P with its huge iconic pop bottles in the town square, but at the same time, L&P advertises Paeroa by using its name and by giving the town an icon. New Zealand acts as a perennial set tour for Lord of the Rings, and the films were like a nine hour promotional video for New Zealand.

It could be argued that all places and locations are consumed through tourism but I would counter that in these examples the places are actually constructed into consumer goods and sold as such. They become something to be promoted, bought and sold.

Paeroa and New Zealand are two locations which are consumed as commodities. Without their assiociated products, pop and films, they revert simply to locations, they are just places. By being linked to a product they not only become advertisements for themselves and the product, but they become a consumable commodity.