How luxurious is that?

A comment on the Facebook page of a colleague caught my eye in the week.

It concerns 'Luxury'.

Now luxury in its true usage evokes 'rich, comfortable and sumptuous living' (as Collins would have it).

In its marketing usage, however, it is generally deployed to play only on the hopeless longing to sample such a lifestyle.

So before you describe whatever you market as 'Luxury', heed my colleague's warning: nothing truly luxurious ever uses the word 'Luxury' to describe itself.

Using the word 'Luxury' is not dissimilar to attaching a sticker to the packaging saying, 'mid range product being marketed to people we believe to be undiscerning enough not to know the difference between it and a superior item which may bear certain similarities to it, but which is enjoyed by people of genuine taste, affluence and discernment'.