Buying experience, no Rekall required

June 9, 2007 9:05 AM

Mint Lifestyle is the most exclusive "lifestyle management" service in the US - bored with luxury options, the wealthy are seeking unique and exclusive authentic life experiences. Want to meet Nelson Mandela? Shut down the San Francisco Zoo for a private tour? Watch a shuttle launch from a private NASA lounge? Tour Berlin with a former German Spy? Mint Lifestyle extends the hotel concierge concept to provide clients with an authentic life.
posted by stbalbach (17 comments total)

Make A Wish Foundation for capitalists.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 9:15 AM on June 9, 2007

*snrk*

that's funny. i have an authentic life, and i haven't had to pay anyone to provide it! MINT!
posted by RedEmma at 9:23 AM on June 9, 2007

Aw, damn. I just thought about The Game.
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:20 AM on June 9, 2007

I don't think authentic means what they think it means...
posted by SaintCynr at 10:30 AM on June 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

On a similar but much more horrific note, I just read about how the director of Hostel got the idea from reading about how people in impoverished countries will sell family members to this "life experience" company so an American or Australian or what have you businessman could have the experience of shooting said person in the head. It made it sound like this was a real thing that goes on. Does anybody know if that's true? Hopefully, it's just a story. As if I need any more reason to hate on business exec types.
posted by Jess the Mess at 10:52 AM on June 9, 2007

I understand about using a service like this to have someone stock your kitchen in your absence, (well I don't 'understand' in the sense that it will ever be applicable to me, I 'understand' in the sense that I can conceptualize it. )

But some of the other stuff just seems like entitled creepiness. Want exclusive use of a zoo? Call us! Want to meet someone the rest of the world considers un-meetable? We can help! Want to hunt the most dangerous of game? We know how to make that happen!

I don't think I'd ever be rich enough to use something like this.
posted by quin at 1:17 PM on June 9, 2007

The rich are not like you and me.
- F.S. Fitzgerald

I wonder about the "famous people" that can be made to show up to meet these people who shell out the money... I wonder what they think of the whole setup. Just a money grab or do they actually try to be nice? What if the payees are total assholes/jerks?
posted by porpoise at 1:33 PM on June 9, 2007

Over the years, my success in life has moved me to accept only the best.

Such as websites run by people who know how to spell "acquisition."
posted by ikkyu2 at 2:31 PM on June 9, 2007

Aw, damn. I just thought about The Game.
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:20 AM on June 9 [+] [!]

Aw, fuck you too!
posted by blasdelf at 5:04 PM on June 9, 2007

"And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human"

William Gibson
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:08 PM on June 9, 2007

Shut down the zoo for a private tour?

Be careful what you gift for, Mrs. Bronstein.
posted by rob511 at 5:40 PM on June 9, 2007

For such discriminating folk, Mint did a pretty lousy job of picking a website designer.
posted by DenOfSizer at 6:13 PM on June 9, 2007

"The best, the best."

I feel sorry for people who need others to reassure them that what they have is 'the best."
posted by pwedza at 10:24 PM on June 9, 2007

Jess:

I just read about how the director of Hostel got the idea from reading about how people in impoverished countries will sell family members to this "life experience" company so an American or Australian or what have you businessman could have the experience of shooting said person in the head.

I have no idea about this particular instance, but it is estimated that between 800,000 and 1 million people are victims of human trafficking each year. Therefore, I would say that such a commerce is far from unimaginable.

Sadly, being shot in the head might be merciful compared to what many people -- mostly women and children -- are trafficked into. i.e. slavery, forced labor, forced sexual services...
posted by pwedza at 10:29 PM on June 9, 2007

I was going to make a crack about hunting homeless people with paintball guns, but Jess the mess ruined it for me.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:12 AM on June 10, 2007

I just read about how the director of Hostel got the idea from reading about how people in impoverished countries will sell family members to this "life experience" company so an American or Australian or what have you businessman could have the experience of shooting said person in the head.

Maybe he watched Ice T in Surviving the Game while really high.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:46 PM on June 11, 2007

What is the minimum depth the stick has to be shoved up your ass to get in?
posted by petersn1 at 6:40 AM on June 12, 2007