Everyone has some sort of societal label, whether we want it or not. The onslaught under way now is Baby Boomers or the “me” generation, while Yuppies, Guppies, Gen-X or whatever letter suits your fancy works for some people.
Now, we’re introduced to yet another collective incarnation called Scuppies (Socially Conscious Upwardly-mobile Persons).
According to a number of human trend web sites such as trendhunter.com, Scuppies are identified as upwardly mobile folks who are hypersensitive to environmental concerns. Oh good, more Birkenstockers. Nothing can be too green or ecologically friendly for them. They’re incessant recyclers, will walk or ride a bike to work if possible, only possess and use credit cards that guarantee to donate a percentage of payments received to green organizations. Marketing specialists and retailers already have this group in their sights and are targeting them for oncoming product offerings.
You may be wondering how this label came into being. It seems a number of people who were “trend labeled” didn’t particularly like the tag, so via the Internet managed to discover others with similar dissatisfaction, so they began brainstorming a suitable term. The person actually credited for creating the term is Chuck Failla, the president of a financial planning firm located in Stamford, Conn. He openly admits to having earned an abundant amount of discretionary income and enjoys the finer things in life such as his Rolex and high-end BMW vehicle, expensive and tastefully tailored suits made of organic cotton and various other earth-friendly fibers, and routinely consumes exotic and costly organic foods. But he also invests in solar power upgrades for his home and supports those in underdeveloped parts of the world through contributions to legitimate charitable causes.
To him, the Scuppie philosophy is simple and straightforward: Americans not only want to live well, but want to also do good things for their world at the same time. He views it as the natural evolution of society.
Today, throngs of people are defecting into the realm of Scuppiedom — they’re everywhere. Scuppies roam free in urban and suburban areas, and are regulars at places like Starbucks, world music concerts and numerous world-friendly gatherings. They own solar-powered bird feeders and kitchen tables hand-carved from rare but recycled wood. They shop at natural food markets and are perplexed about whether or not to ask the cashier for paper or plastic bags.
Scuppies are people who, although they may not have realized it, are desperately yearning for an updated designation that more comfortably and appropriately reflects their acknowledged humanitarian yet indulgent way of life. In effect, they still love money and conspicuous displays of affluence, but they want to pursue and acquire these luxuries in an eco-friendly manner.
Looking a bit deeper into the term, we learn how they became comfortable with the final version. Yuppie, or young urban professional, turned them off because it fell short of summarizing their mindset. Hippie doesn’t cut it these days because of the dope smoking, drug ingesting, perpetual protesting, socially indigent connotation it carries along with the prevailing connection with the 1960s crowd from the radical Bay Area of California. The group was far too old to be a Generation-anything or a Preppie, and Guppies were nearly a lost cause before were they launched. Therefore, the term Scuppie seems to represent a group that can be socially conscious while concurrently desiring and pursuing upward mobility.
We’ll have to wait and see if this faction manages to successfully incorporate and embrace their conspicuous lifestyles and subtle do-gooder intentions over the long haul.
