Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you're probably aware that the folks at Heinz are now selling green ketchup. But one thing you might not realize, because it doesn't appear to have gotten much attention, is that the new ketchup's official color, as listed on the package, is not green -- it's Blastin' Green. . >>

What is inconspicuous consumption? It's about deconstructing the details of consumer culture -- details that are either so weird or obscure that we'd never see them, or so ubiquitous that we've essentially stopped seeing them. This can mean anything from a bizarre canned good, like sauerkraut juice, to a beautifully designed light-industrial object that we've always taken for granted, like the Brannock Device (that gizmo they use to measure your shoe size). Every month, this column will use products like these -- some of them eccentric, many exceedingly ordinary, but all worthy of close inspection -- as a way to look at consumer culture in excruciating detail. "Inconspicuous Consumption" is a registered trademark of Paul Lukas, so hands off.