LECTURE NOTES - CONSUMERISM: PERSUASION//SOCIETY//BRAND//CULTURE

AIMS & CONTENT

-                Analyse the rise of US consumerism.

-                Links between consumerism and unconscious desires.

-                Sigmund Freud.

-                Edward Bernays.

-                Consumerism as social control.

SIGMUND FREUD

(1856-1939)

-                New theory on human nature.

-                Psychoanalysis

-                We all have hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts, which need controlling.

CIVILISATION & ITS DISCONTENTS

-                Fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual.

-                Human instincts incompatible with the wellbeing of community.

-                The principle of pleasure

Man will always be unhappy.

After man’s instincts are allowed, he becomes temporarily docile.

World War I was a prime example of this.

EDWARD BERNAYS

(1891-1995)

-                Press agent.

-                Employed by Public Information during World War I.

-                Set up ‘The Council of Public Relations’

-                Based on ideas of Freud (Uncle)

In 1929 it was socially unacceptable for women to smoke.

Bernays was employed to get women to smoke.

Easter Day Parade 1929

Bernays paid debutants (beautiful, middle-class young women of a certain age) to parade smoking cigarettes.

He then fed the story to the press, that these women were in fact suffragettes and that this was a political protest against female repression.

‘Torches of Freedom’

Smoking became sexy, a symbol of power.

·      Product placement

·      Celebrity endorsements

·      Use of pseudo-scientific reports

FORDISM

HENRY FORD

(1863-1947)

-       Transposes taylorism to car factories of Detroit.

-       Requires large investment.

-       Increases productivity so much wages could be higher.

-       Workers could afford what they were making.

EMERGANCE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDS

-       Distinguishable

-       Identifiable

-       Starting point for modern consumer culture

-       Things could be successful if the appealed to the human desire

Hartley’s Jam

Chivers Jam

Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Flour

-       Originally was whole mix but this did not sell as women thought it devalued them and that it did not show them to be a good housewife.

-       Changed to having to only add an egg that made women believe they were providing and supporting, whilst also being a shortcut for people who could not really cook.

Oldsmobile

-       ‘Unobtrusive source of power’

-       ‘Real pleasure of motoring’

The start of the link between male sexual virility and driving cars – 1909.

Cadillac

-       Standard of the world

-       Advert suggests wealth//power//affluence

Society shifts from needs to wants.

Want to be sexually appealing.

Want to be the star.

Could have a crisis of overproduction without the story that it can fulfill desires.

-       False needs

THE HIDDEN PERSUADERS

VANCE PACKARD

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.

-       Selling immortality.

Advertisers began to use these techniques.

Birth of society that believes they are happy, which is in fact just sold and is an illusion.

Sold the idea that they could satisfy desires by buying things.

WALTER LIPPMANN

-       New elite is needed to manage the ‘bewildered herd’.

-       ‘Manufacturing consent’

Start of the link between commercialism, capitalism and politics.

24^TH OCTOBER 1929

‘BLACK TUESDAY’

-       Biggest stock market crash in the 20^th century.

-       Started the great depression.

ROOSEVELT & THE ‘NEW DEAL’

1933-36

-       Introduces benefits.

-       Social security.

-       Investment in industry.

-       Government control.

-       Unpopular amongst big businesses.

THE WORLD’S FAIR

NEW YORK

1940

-       Giant exhibition.

-       Seemingly presenting all that is great about America.

-       In fact it was propaganda for the big businesses.

-       Futuristic inventions//travel//affluence.

-       ‘Democracity’

-       Vision that you could only be free if you just bought and ignored the politics.

Communism  -        Unfree

Capitalism     -        Free – Limited to what you can afford.

You are not what you own.

Illusion of freedom through consumption.

·      Consumerism is an ideological project

·      We believe that through consumption our desires can be fulfilled.

·      The consumer self.

·      Legacy of Bernays PR felt in all aspects of modern society.

·      Conflicts between alternative models.