Social Experiments

The Washington Post conducted this social experiment:

Violinist Joshua Bell plays incognito in a Washington subway before a traveling rush-hour audience of 1,000-odd people using a $3.5 million handcrafted 1713 violin by Antonio Stradivari.
What do you think would happen?




Excerpt from the Washington Post article: "A onetime child prodigy, at 39 Joshua Bell has arrived as an internationally acclaimed virtuoso. Three days before he appeared at the Metro station, Bell had filled the house at Boston's stately Symphony Hall, where merely pretty good seats went for $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so respectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence between movements. But on that Friday in January, Joshua Bell was just another mendicant, competing for the attention of busy people on their way to work."

On the flip-side, will consumers pay the premium for a mediocre product with a hyped up brand? Oh wait... that's what we, marketers, do. Make the ordinary, extraordinary. The unnecessary, a must-have.

On a much lighter note, how does a region's environment affect its people?
Take the people of Osaka, Japan, for example...



The insight lies in these quotes from my friends familiar with the Japanese culture:
"They are from Osaka, which is like the Japanese capitol of comedy" 
"Only in Osaka. You do this on Tokyo ppl, and you'll get completely ignored."