- Analyse the rise of consumerism
- Discuss the links between consumerism and our unconscious desires.
- Sigmund Freud
- Edmund Berneys
- Consumerism in social control
Books to checkout:
- Century of self (2002)
- No logo (1999)
Sigmund Freud 1856 - 1939
Father of psycho analysis.
Came up with a new way of understanding human nature.
Argued that we have repressed all sorts of hidden sexual and violent desires.
Finding ways to suppress the unconscious mind, the interpretation of dreams.
Freuds model of personality structure modernised:
He argued that we had desires which are incompatible with society - controlled civilisation. Your desires need to be released.
The pleasure principle - if we can let them out in an acceptable way we will be satisfied.
World War One was a testament to his theories, showed release of violence.
Post WWI society goes back to a sense of humanity, west becomes wealthy from winning
and society develops.
Edward Berneys 1891 - 1995 - Freuds nephew.
He worked for a propaganda company
Coined the term PR - Public Relation
Books:
Crystallising public opinion - 1923
Propaganda
Berney's took Freud's ideas and used them in business.
If you can link a 'thing' to our animal instincts you can make a false beed for a product.
He worked for all sorts of businesses, people started realising the potential of his ideas, he started to employ sexual techniques.
He was employed to try and get women to start smoking. At the time women smoking wasv something that was frowned upon, but for cigerette companies half of the consumesr were women, so half of there audience weren't buying their product.
Berney's came up with a stunt to get women to start smoking. Paid a group of beautiful/ wealthy women to walk through a parade in New York, and at a specific point told them all to get cigarettes out and start smoking. The paparazzi were aware of this so lots of photos were taken of the women smoking.
He fed a story to the press saying these women were suffragettes - political process, touches of freedom against male repression.
This sunt got a lot of women smoking - It showed independence, power and sex appeal.
Politicians started getting involved in using Berney's.
Product placement, celebrity endorsement
It was around this time western marketing kicked off.
It relied on the principle that some desire was satisfied.
Things being sold in this strategic way were being bought on the principle that they will satisfy our instinct desires, going back to Feuds theory.
Fordism
Henry Ford 1863 - 1947
Production line - rate of productivity rapidly increases.
Mass production.
Society started producing lots of things
High wages due to plenty of jobs - more disposable income
The model ford T.
Loads of things on the market - became important to make your product stand out.
Birth of branding.
Jam adverts - "I see you were lucky too!" - Making people think their brand is the best.
Started a system of PR & marketing.
Aunt Jemimas pancake flour - pancake pre mix
- It didn't sell because house wives felt like they were cheating as the mix was already prepared.
- They changed there product so that you had to crack an egg into it and mix it in.
- After that it became very successful as it satisfied the desire to provide, women felt like they were actually making something.
Marketing tactics started to change to be more psychological.
1909 - Adverts started relating males to cars.
Cadilac advert 1919 - Branding started to show status and class
Attitudes: 'I want a car because I want to be sexually appealing' 'I want a perfume because I want to like a celebrity'
Chanel Adverts
Vance Packard author of The hidden persuades - 1957
Marketing hidden needs:
- Selling emotional security.
- Selling reassurance of worth
- Selling ego gratification
- Selling creative outlets
- Selling love objects
- Selling sense of power
- Selling a sense of roots
People are only given the illusion they're happy
Walter lippman
He said a new elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd.
A new way of governing society through manufacturing consent.
government propaganda.
Controlling society through illusions.
Then the Russian revolt happened in 1917, showed the working class taking over the rich and placing over a communism society - everything shared.
Then the American stockmarkets crashed and this triggered the great depression.
Politicians started questioning marketing as a stable way of controlling society.
Roosevelt came along 'New Deal' 1933-36
Big businesses disagreed - anti- Roosevelt
In 1940 there was a world fair, Edward Berney's was on the committee
Was a giant fair to show basically 'how great the western culture is'. (Big marketing strategy)
Trying to get people to change their faith from government control and restore it in consumerism.
'The Futurama' was a building which featured a make-shift world which showed the future of the west. Known as democracity.
The idea of it was; 'You can only be free if you buy into this'.
Conclusion: 'You are not what you own'
Our society is based on the illusion of freedom through consumption at the extent of everything else.
The conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue to this day.
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