Coconut Tree Group Grows Against the Trend: Behind the "Coconut Tree Aesthetic" Is the Public's Aversion to the Postmodern Trap?

On February 24, 2024, Coconut Tree Group, which has been frequently involved in advertising and design disputes in the past year, held a New Year opening conference in Haikou City, and its financial statements show that the group's total sales in 2023 will reach 5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.08%, taxes will be 682 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.39%, and the total annual sales volume will be 700,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 10.26%. After entering 2024, the sales growth rate of Coconut Palm Group is even more amazing, and the sales volume in January alone has increased by 20% compared with the same period last year.

Obviously, the "maverick" design, TV commercials and webcast style of the Coconut Tree Group have not affected the sales of its related products. Instead, the huge amount of web traffic is successfully converted into real sales.

At the same time, its "coconut tree aesthetics" began to form a brand effect, not only successfully reversed public opinion, from criticized to widely acclaimed, but also cultivated a considerable fan base, many people bluntly said that they are not interested in coconut water drinks, but attracted by the "top aesthetics" of coconut palm products and become loyal consumers, hoping that coconut trees with "top aesthetics" to rectify the "unhealthy trend" in the advertising industry.

So, what kind of standard is "coconut tree aesthetics", how did it quickly gain the favor and recognition of the public, and what kind of changes in social thought are hidden behind it?

Pluralistic aesthetics - the deconstruction and rebellion of aesthetic discipline

In pre-modern society, people have already known that aesthetics is not only a nature, an instinct, but also a power, a sometimes even oppressive force, who has the right to define aesthetic standards, who has this power, the Han Dynasty poem "King Chu is so thin, the palace starved to death" is the earliest reflection of ancient Chinese on aesthetic oppression.

As human society entered the media age, the recognition of this power became more and more profound, and Baudrillard wrote in "The Consumer Society":

"Beauty for women has become a religious categorical imperative...... And it is true, beauty is such an absolute command only because it is a form of capital. ”

Whoever holds this "religiously categorical imperative", that is, the standard-setting power of beauty, has the power to influence the will of individuals in society. In the commercial society, no capital will let go of this huge "business opportunity", and the first step in grasping this power is to use the power of the media to aesthetically discipline the public, newspapers, magazines, radio and television are using various forms to promote the "template of beauty" every day, and finally replace the public's standard with its own unified standard, and provide goods and services in the process of the public's pursuit of this standard.

After entering the Internet era, this kind of aesthetic discipline creates a deep mimicry of "appearance illusion" with ultra-high-density information flow, and the importance of "appearance" has been mentioned to the point of incomprehensible, in order to improve appearance, everyone has to work towards the "template of beauty", which in fact has caused widespread appearance anxiety. And derived a series of social problems such as excessive plastic surgery.

The "template of beauty" is essentially aesthetic absolutism, that is, the existence of a monistic and absolute "standard" for beauty. Therefore, deconstruction of this monistic standard has naturally become the most direct way to solve the problem, and the "pluralistic aesthetics (i.e., aesthetic relativism)" imported from the West have naturally entered the public eye.

This kind of "deconstruction" is mainly manifested in the struggle for the right to interpret the definition, you say that there is a standard for beauty, I say that there is no standard for beauty, you say that the white swan is beautiful, I say that in fact, the toad can also be beautiful, you think the toad is not beautiful, because you don't like the toad, for those who like the toad, the toad is not only beautiful, but also more beautiful than the white swan. If you use "white and thin" as a template for beauty, I will launch the example of "black and fat old" to fight against it.

However, can this kind of "pluralistic aesthetics" or aesthetic relativism really solve aesthetic discipline, aesthetic oppression, and a series of social problems that arise from it?

Absolute relative

Gombrich, a British art historian, predicted early on that if the philosophy of cultural relativism became too popular, it would eventually lead to the complete destruction of a range of humanities, including aesthetics. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that "the most beautiful monkey is ugly compared to man", which clearly reveals that beauty is relative, but if the relativity of beauty cannot be confined to a rational category, but becomes "absolute relative", that is, another "law", it will inevitably point to absurdity and nothingness.

To put it simply, white swans are beautiful, black swans can also be beautiful, and white and black swans are "beautiful in their own way". And for a specific person, which kind of swan is more beautiful, depends on whether the person prefers white or black. But to say that a swan is as beautiful as a toad, that a basin is as high as a mountain, that a gutter is as wide as an ocean, and that there is no difference between good and bad people, is obvious nonsense, falling into "absurdity and nothingness".

In fact, this kind of "absolute relativeness", although absurd, is not uncommon in modern society, and even has a considerable market, Alan Bloom pointed out in "The Closure of the American Spirit" that the so-called "pluralistic values education" that runs through the American education system:

Relativism is instilled as the only virtue. Schools teach students to be vigilant against the dangers of absolutism, not because of its error, but because of intolerance. As a result, among American college students, "the relativity of truth is not a theoretical insight, but a moral postulate."

What an absurd and dramatic scene, the "relative" used to deconstruct the "absolute" becomes the new absolute, the plurality used to replace the "monism" becomes the new "monism", the attempt to deconstruct the discipline has in fact formed a new discipline, the effort to resist oppression has become the new oppression, and the "relativity of beauty" itself is used to explain the beauty of diversity, but in the end it becomes a fig leaf for ugliness. As Bincle puts it:

Since all values are relative, if I "get happy" in a different way than you, then you have no right to object to my actions. In this way, "all values are relative" are often used to justify feelings regardless of the behavior.

In the face of this new discipline and oppression, the strange phenomena of "confusing black and white" and "ugliness as beauty" are endless, and it is dangerous to praise the beauty of swans, because it may be seen as an affront to the toad, and likewise, it is dangerous to question the "beauty of the toad", because it may be seen as some kind of discipline, gaze or oppression. Although this kind of discipline and oppression often appears in the form of "××× can be beautiful" and "confident ×× the most beautiful", many American film and television industry practitioners said that failure to reflect "pluralistic aesthetics" in their work may lead to them losing the opportunity to work, and this unspoken rule of "those who disobey shall not eat" also fully shows that the so-called "pluralistic values" movement is essentially a postmodern trap for the public, in which all concepts are like "beauty and ugliness" The same upside down and confused, this is a kind of closure called openness, a slavery called freedom.

Therefore, the admiration of the "coconut tree aesthetic" is essentially the public's rejection of "cultural diversity" phenomena such as "plus-size models", "Oriental high-end faces" and "black mermaids" imported from the West, as well as the abandonment of the above-mentioned postmodern traps.

The coconut tree, which turns a blind eye to the "trend" and adheres to the "traditional aesthetic value", is just like the child who pointed out the true face of the "emperor's new clothes" in the crowd, and has become a brave retrograde who resists this postmodern trap, and naturally wins the popularity and admiration of the public who have been tired of this scam for a long time.

• (This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper)

Liu He

Editor-in-charge: Chen Bin