Unfortunately, the term ‘adventure’ has been coopted and diluted by large corporations looking to maximize profits.
The following is a snippet of an engaging rant written in 2014 by explorer, author, and filmmaker Tom Allen.
I don’t know Tom, but I do share his views on the subject and share his understanding of adventure. He’s the real deal. And his rant says it so much better than I ever could.
Tom writes:
It’s pervasive. It’s hilarious! Adventure is the buzzword of the moment. Consumers, bored of safety and security in a nanny state, suddenly want excitement and adrenaline. Businesses large and small are using that desire to sell them more of the same old shite.
Par for the course, really; the marketers who keep these companies competitive are used to jumping on any up-and-coming trend and riding it until it collapses in the dust, knowing another bandwagon will have been long since tracked down by the time that happens. It’s comically tragic (or perhaps tragically comic?) that adventure has become the most recent high-street poster boy, that a concept so at odds with mass consumption is being hijacked for such ends.
When the dust settles, of course, the spirit of adventure will remain standing, because it is defined by what it inside of us, rather than going on around us. And so I am far less concerned about the temporary reappropriation of the word by outsiders as I am about the practices of the insiders we’ve previously seen.
Do read the whole blog post. And while you are there don’t miss the comments that follow.
H/T: Alastair Humphreys on Twitter, another true adventurer.
