"The Germans make great stuff, y'know"

So über-blogger Joe Posnanski had a piece mentioning infomercials, and of course ended up talking about the Shamwow. One of the things he highlighted is the fact that the Shamwow ad stresses the fact that it's made in Germany, and he wondered why. To wit:

"If it said: 'Made in USA,' OK, I’d get it, we’re trying to play the patriotic card. But what possible good could come out of people knowing that the ShamWow is made in Germany? Are there people out there thinking: 'Well, Germany is known for their shammy-type products. Who could forget the ShamCow, which was only a four inch square but could suck up an entire half-gallon carton of milk. And the ShamPlow. Those Germans are Shammerrific.'"


I think the idea is that it’s not made in China, Taiwan, Korea, Pakistan, etc. People have an idea that stuff made there is somehow inferior, because they don’t understand how exploiting comparative advantage reduces cost, and figure if it’s that much cheaper, there must be something wrong with it. The recent well-known problems with goods coming from China only reinforces this view. Products from Germany don’t have this same stigma because, if anything, they tend to be more expensive (just think about cars: Mercedes, Porsche, etc.).

This, of course, lends some credence to ideas of upward-sloping demand curves: people assume that if something is more expensive, it must be better. Clearly this phenomenon does not often dominate, but I wonder how pervasive it is.