A gimmick simultaneously reveals both deficient and excessive labor

Evidence

A gimmick is a technique that reveals a simultaneous deficiency and excess of labor in production, something that “seems too expensive or too cheap,” where “the technology behind it is too new or too old.” — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 87

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Sianne Ngai’s concept of the gimmick, which the chapter uses as its central analytic tool for mirror selfies.
• XREF: Ngai’s gimmick theory could usefully be set against the labor theory of value passages elsewhere in this book—both are about the visibility/obscurity of labor in commodities.