Consumerism: Persuasion, Society, Brand and Culture
Sigmund Freud was the inventor of psychoanalysis a method of treatment focused on the interpretation of dreams as a way of accessing the subconscious mind. Our hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts (which need controlling) are incompatible with civilised society as we are consistently going against what we truly want to do in order to comply with society. However if we believe are desires are being met where momentarily happy.
The Conscious Mind: tip of an iceberg
Conscious:
contact with outside world
Pre-Subconscious :
Material just beneath the surface of awareness
Unconscious:
difficult to retrieve material, well below the surface of awareness
1930:
Frued argues these instincts are incompatible with civilised society creating a tension between individual freedom and civil society.
WW1 is how you should expect people to behave due to population surpassing there natural instincts
Edward Bernays 1891-1995:
Freuds nephew was employed to produce propaganda during WW1. He used his background in propaganda and knowledge of frauds theory to create a new form of advertising to manage public opinion - Birth of Public Relations
Public Relations:
Mixture of Frueds theory and propaganda to persuade a group of people to believe a certain thing to make companies extremely popular.
1929 - Easter day parade,
Bernays hired glamours actresses, sophisticated, dressed as high class debutants, walking at back of parade and organised them to smoke at key point within the parade. The created massive exposure as he told papers the stunt was a political protest by suffragette against stereotype that smoking wasn't for women. Women where no longer smoking but lighting touches of freedom to signify independence and it became a symbolic act of feminism. The stunt smashed the stereotype that smoking was unbecoming of a woman. Bernays even paid doctors to say smoking was healthy by creating fake scientific reports.
The system of PR worked so well for companies, politicians begin to become interested with celebrity endorsement to indicate qualities of the celebrity transposed onto a product or person used as an attempt to attach desirable qualities to otherwise mundane or unhealthy products.
Fordism:
Transposes Taylorism to car factories of Detroit.
World of mass production - society becomes filled with things, overproduction becomes a crisis as market becomes overstated meaning people no longer want to but. Resulting in brands becoming very important as companies need to distinguish their product from that of their competitors by giving their product an individual identity e.g. giving products peoples names giving the impression of hand made, more human and lovable. Sell products through the idea that they would meet another aspect of your intuitive desires.
Bernays:
Selling cars with the impression they would increase masculinity.
Another way is to sell based on peoples aspirations as products are marketed on the potential for you to realise you unconscious desires, brands trade on desired lifestyles.
Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Flour:
Took away egg to make people feel like they where cooking ,instead of incapable which was first thought in relation to pancake mix.
Shift from society based on needs to a society on manufacturing peoples desires as people no-longer need things but they want/desire the latest product.
Understand ourselves based on what we collect throughout our lives
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
Isolates 8 tactics fo marketing;
Hidden needs in marketing (Attach a promise of worth to an object it makes it desirable)
- Selling emotional security,
- reassurance of worth - promise of worth to an object it makes it desirable
- ego-gratification - masculinity, ford advert feeding peopled ego
- creative outlets - aunt Jemimers, make things more desirable
- love objects, - these things will make you more sexually desirable
- sense of power,
- sense of roots, - by purchasing object you’re impeding yourself within a community
- immorality. - promise of legacy, still have an influence once your dead (life insurance)
1920:
Walter Lippmann
New elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd ‘manufacturing consent”.
Advertising government on society to avoid wars, stop eruptions of society/revolution.
Can apply theories to organisation of society instead of just to marketing
1917:
Rise of communism
Creating a world where we seem happy but through consumerism we believe where loved, part of community through the consumer system - keeps us happy. However the extent to which we can do this is limited due to inequality, quality of life showing that people in the west aren't all really happy.
Black Tuesday 24th October 1929
Market crashed leading to great depression throughout America creating a crisis.
Capitalism needs to constantly expand, however within world markets they reach a point where they can no longer expand creating a crash.
Roosevelt: New Deal
Decided to tax business more, restrain market, redistribute wealth into housing projects and systems to create jobs- start of the challenge to rename market capitalism. However this upset big business who tried to lobby Roosevelt out of power. They came up with publicity stunt at New York World Fair, an advert for consumerism as the best way of life, key to all problems of the word. Business providing you with the answers to your problems during this tough time. - giant piece of propaganda design by Bernays
Consumerism:
- Consumerism is an ideological project
- we believe that through consumption our desires can be met.
- tricks of consumerism- suggests our desires can be met through consumption.
- The consumer self
- The legacy of Bernays/PR can be felt in all aspects of C21st society.
- Conflict between alternative models of social organisations continue to this day
- Too what extent are our lives ‘free’ under the western consumer society.
