Consumerism: Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture

Consumerism: Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture

Century of Self  - Adam Curtis

No Logo - Naomi Klein

Sigmund Freud

• New theory of human nature
• Psychoanalysis, discovered the unconscious mind
• Hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling
• The Interpretation of dreams (1899)]
• The unconscious (1915)
• The ego and the id (1923)
• Beyond the pleasure principle (1920), If we believe our desires are being met then we are momentarily happy. 
• Civilisation and its discontents (1930), Constantly repressing our desires for a civilised society.

Conscious mind - contact with the outside world

Preconscious mind - Material just beneath the surface of awareness

Unconscious mind - Well below the surface

Id

Ego

Superego

Fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual

human instincts incompatible 

WW1 - how people are expected to behave, natural instincts, not a surprise, characteristics of humanity.

Edward Bernays

• Freuds Nephew
• Press agent
• employed by public information during WW1
• Post war - set up ‘The council on public relations’ 
• Birth of Public Relations
• Based on the ideas of Freud 
• Crystallising Public Opinion (1923)
• Propaganda (1928) - made to make people believe a certain thing

‘Touches of Freedom’ - 1929 Easter day parade

• Hired glamorous actresses and got them to dress up as high class deputies and got them to walk down a parade. once they had passed a certain point they all light a cigarette in unison to walk past the rest of the crowd. Told the press they were suffrajets and made the newspapers believe they were lighting torches of freedom. From this point, smoking is fashionable and a symbol for women freedom removing the idea that its an unfeminine thing to do. 
• Product Placement - placing desire onto a product through acting in a certain way
• Celebrity endorsements - Politicians became aware that celebrities can help to make people love them
• the use of pseudoscientific reports - e.g.. paying doctors to say that smoking is really good for you
• all are attempts to attach desirable qualities to things that aren’t necessarily hugely appealing

Fordism

• Henry Ford 
• Transposes Taylorism to car factories of Detroit
• Moving assembly line
• Standard production - society becomes oversaturated with stuff because things can be mass produced. 
• Branding - invented during this period of time, companies need to have an individual identity separating it from other similar products, e.g.. making something seem hand made, giving it a human name making it seem more personal. a way of creating a unique identity for something in a saturated market making it desirable. 
• Sell products through the idea that they will meet some other aspect of you instinctual desire - e.g. first guy to sell motorcars on the promise that it increases male sexuality. Promising things to do will peoples aspirations, fulfilling peoples desires (love, success, attraction.)
• Aunt Jemimas pancake mix - pancake mix is cheating, aunt jemimas took out the dehydrated egg and so people felt more like they were cooking as they had to add egg and milk.

people don’t need any more things anymore but they want the latest things in fashion e.g.. phone, car, clothing, shoes - materialistic things will transform us and make us more desirable. 

THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS - VANCE PACKARD - pelican book.

Marketing hidden needs 

• selling emotional security
• selling reassurance of worth - human instinct to be loved and feel meaningful in the world. be part of a group and attachment of worth
• selling ego gratification - the person you think you are or really want to be, making product promise that it will make you who you want to be = more desirable
• selling creative outlets - attaching creativity/cool/sexy makes it more desirable.
• selling sense of power
• selling sense of roots - through purchase you are attaching yourself to a community
• selling immortality - promise that you’re not going to die, leave some sort of legacy (e.g. life insurance - dead but still impact beyond the grave) 

1920 - new elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd 

• ‘manufacturing consent’
• people must be stupid for their opinion to be changed so easily
• Walter Lippmann - you can create a harmonious social system using these ideas as it caters for peoples need. stop moments of eruption
• Russian revolution -  1917
• Black Tuesday - oct 24, 1929 - caused market crash leading to the great depression in america, no work, no money
• Roosevelt and the new deal 1933-36 came in charge, tax people more, regulate market, put restraints, reinvest the money made into housing, infrastructure and welfare. 
• people wanted to get rid of roosevelt as they didn’t like being told what to do. 
• publicity stunts tried to suggest that consumerism is the way to drag us out of the depression and that it would solve all their problems. - giant piece of propaganda. 

Conclusion:

you are not what you own

• consumerism is an ideological project
• we believe that through consumption our desires can be met
• The consumer self
• the legacy of Bernays/ PR can be felt infall aspects of 21st century society 
• the conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue to this day
• to what extent are our lives ‘free’ under the western consumerist system? - so many examples around the world. How free are we really?
• The illusion of free choice.