Chapter 7

Consumer Societies

In a capitalist economy the overproduction of good is what is depended on, this means that there must be a desire to make this profitable.

It has been debated that in a consumer driven world, the idea of self image and a person's status is driven by the objects they own.  These objects seem to give meaning to their lives because they are lacking the connection to a real community.

As in the ads for body soap, no one was very aware of the need for perfumed body soap until the idea was placed in front of them, the need to fill the gap or even entice women to thinking if they buy the soap they will never be lonely.

The post war economy supported the consumer idea because the United States was in a very good place  . In this association the idea of being a citizen was then adopted to being a consumer, because a good citizen was a consumer.

Envy, Desire, and Belonging

Bourdieu identified different forms of capital, in addition to economic capital, he also expanded on social capital, symbolic capital and lastly cultural capital.

Advertising targets a group of people to appeal to either a connection between family, generation, nation, or community

It is a psychological idea to try and convince people to buy products bcause of a lack or want of something in their life.

Commodity Culture and Commodity Fetishism

Commodities are defined as things that are bought and sold in a social system of exchanges.  "commodity self" is the idea that we as a person are partially defined through our consumption of commodities.

Commodity Fetishism where massed produced goods are emptied of the meaning of their production and then reassociated with a new meaning that mystifies the product and turns it into a fetich object.

Many producers of "made in the United States" are taking parts form overseas and assembling them here.

Brands and Their Meanings

Brands are product names that have meaning attached to them through naming, packaging, advertising, and marketing.

brand meaning is usually established through repetition of a symbol or shape.

Also the replacement of a brand name as an action or object

Marketing of Coolness

Finding that a group could be marked to to be associated with "coolness".

The attachment of "coolness" to products, this would have them seen as unique, distinct and uninfluenced.

The addition of adding philanthropic ideas to ads. Like (RED) it is both pleasing aesthetically and morally makes a consumer feel good about what they are doing and spending their money on.