William Labov, born 1927, looked at change in language and how different social factors effected language change, ranging from age to social class to gender. He found language change was either conscious of unconscious, unconscious being when people change their language without noticing, and conscious being when people realise they are changing the way they speak, and actively encourage it. This investigation looks at conscious speech change and uses the example of Labov’s New York Department Store study with the involvement of PRESTIGE.