Cultural Intermediaries and the Symbolic Value of the Bored APE: The Route to Extreme
Conspicuous Consumption
Group 23: Symbolic economies of social media and crypto
Michael Stevenson
, Introduction
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT is one of the most valuable projects currently being traded on the
OpenSea platform, with an average value of 120 Ethereum (around 340,000 US Dollars) (OpenSea
2022). Other than the obvious monetary value this NFT obtains, I intend to investigate how symbolic
value is amplified by cultural intermediaries on social media. The relevance of such research comes
from the contemporary social media environment and its integration with the idea of NFTs. If you
look on platforms such as TikTok or Twitter, and if you were to search for the topic of NFTs, you will
almost always find the Bored Ape NFT being used as a reference. The videos/posts that use the Bored
Ape have hundreds of thousands of views and likes, indicating a sense of cultural value to the NFT.
As the current excitement for NFTs is booming online, the Bored Ape has become a symbol of NFTs
essentially. With cultural intermediaries such as influencers drawing much attention to NFTs brings
the question of whether they use their influence strategically. The investigation of this paper will be
conducted using the primary source of Snoop Dogg’s Twitter to form the following arguments
surrounding symbolic value. Firstly, the Bored Ape NFT’s symbolic value is associated with luxury.
Secondly, this association is created through the social practices of cultural immediacies online.
Furthermore, those cultural intermediaries have moulded the NFT’s symbolic value into a form of
conspicuous consumption. Overall, through the research conducted, this paper argues that the Bored
Ape NFT’s symbolic value and association with luxury is not some inevitable consequence of
technology but instead occurs as a result of the social practices of cultural intermediaries online:
artists like Snoop Dogg promote and discuss NFTs in ways that create associations between NFTs and
other luxury products, constructing the symbolic value of NFT’s as a form of extreme conspicuous
consumption.
Developing symbolic value
The concept of symbolic value can be framed in several different ways. Mickael Benaim’s 2018 paper
on symbolic value and internet memes argues that symbolic value can be defined as an ‘immaterial
value attributed to an object or an idea and communicated symbolic meaning’ (Benaim 2018). In
other words, symbolic value is the cultural meaning behind an object or idea which produces value. In
Conspicuous Consumption
Group 23: Symbolic economies of social media and crypto
Michael Stevenson
, Introduction
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT is one of the most valuable projects currently being traded on the
OpenSea platform, with an average value of 120 Ethereum (around 340,000 US Dollars) (OpenSea
2022). Other than the obvious monetary value this NFT obtains, I intend to investigate how symbolic
value is amplified by cultural intermediaries on social media. The relevance of such research comes
from the contemporary social media environment and its integration with the idea of NFTs. If you
look on platforms such as TikTok or Twitter, and if you were to search for the topic of NFTs, you will
almost always find the Bored Ape NFT being used as a reference. The videos/posts that use the Bored
Ape have hundreds of thousands of views and likes, indicating a sense of cultural value to the NFT.
As the current excitement for NFTs is booming online, the Bored Ape has become a symbol of NFTs
essentially. With cultural intermediaries such as influencers drawing much attention to NFTs brings
the question of whether they use their influence strategically. The investigation of this paper will be
conducted using the primary source of Snoop Dogg’s Twitter to form the following arguments
surrounding symbolic value. Firstly, the Bored Ape NFT’s symbolic value is associated with luxury.
Secondly, this association is created through the social practices of cultural immediacies online.
Furthermore, those cultural intermediaries have moulded the NFT’s symbolic value into a form of
conspicuous consumption. Overall, through the research conducted, this paper argues that the Bored
Ape NFT’s symbolic value and association with luxury is not some inevitable consequence of
technology but instead occurs as a result of the social practices of cultural intermediaries online:
artists like Snoop Dogg promote and discuss NFTs in ways that create associations between NFTs and
other luxury products, constructing the symbolic value of NFT’s as a form of extreme conspicuous
consumption.
Developing symbolic value
The concept of symbolic value can be framed in several different ways. Mickael Benaim’s 2018 paper
on symbolic value and internet memes argues that symbolic value can be defined as an ‘immaterial
value attributed to an object or an idea and communicated symbolic meaning’ (Benaim 2018). In
other words, symbolic value is the cultural meaning behind an object or idea which produces value. In
