The Protestant Sleep Ethic
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Early in the coronavirus pandemic—not long after public-health experts began coining terms such as coronasomnia to describe one of the side effects of the growing crisis—hotels began embracing a new genre of travel. The “sleep retreat” was novel neither in concept (it sold hotels as places to rest) nor in practice (the promised slumber inducements included plush bedding, meditation aids, and pillow sprays). Its innovation, instead, was in messaging. To sell products that amounted, essentially, to fancy rooms misted with high-end Febreze, the hotels were bringing a new twist to the old idea that health is a luxury good.
Marketers are cultural critics by other means. Before they can bring new trends to life, they
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