Flaunt the Message, Not the Intention
Fans of NASCAR have only one thing to keep in mind once the cheering and prancing around is over and done with: they have to tell the world how much they love NASCAR and how cool it is to be a fan. They don’t do it just because they think it’s true. They don’t do it to attract others to become fans of NASCAR. Heck, they don’t even do it to promote NASCAR.
They do it to assert their identity. They got this illusion that what they really are is the accumulation of what they love, what they do and what they want to do. That’s why when fans of NASCAR wear automotive cufflinks, they don’t wear just another car cufflinks or whatever. They have to own the official NASCAR Cufflinks—official, complete with a certificate of authenticity.
It’s just silver cufflinks after all, right? But no. These people, they don’t want others to think that their flaunting. That’s why whenever they want to tell the world how much they love something, it has to be through an object that has other function than merely telling what they want to tell. If it is possible to find out whether subliminal messages are truly effective, they would gladly take advantage of that. But the least they can do is to wear NASCAR cufflinks as if others won’t notice their intention to flaunt that they are a NASCAR fan.
The key here is to flaunt what you want to flaunt and hide your intentions of flaunting it. Too bad, keen eyes see every angle.