How has consumer culture
and the media objectified people and changed society?
It could be said that people are products of the society that they are
born into and with the emergence of consumer culture as old as the first
civilisations (Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Ancient Rome) it could be argued to
of transformed society into objectifying peoples identity’s based on there
consumerism, especially in the current, with a heavy influence from the media. Consumer
culture is where the buying and spending of the consumers define the economy;
this culture is driven by money and how buying and owning your own property can
attain happiness where your wants and needs are met. However consumer culture
has become consumption for its own sake through mass media and the promises of
consumer culture not being met for consumers. Instead of it fulfilling
spiritual or aesthetic desires it creates empty promises that leave the
consumers more depressed and insecure. This culture has consumed us and has led
to the objectification of people in society where they become a product of
consumer culture through there consumerism.
As Kalle Lasn writes in Culture Jam (2000),
‘We are being
manipulated in the most insidious way. Our emotions, personalities and core
values are under siege from media and cultural forces too complex to decode. A
continuous product message has woven itself into the very fabric of our
existence.’ (P.xiii)
the culture has
become part of us, our coding, and we are no longer in control. Everything we
eat, touch and wear has a label attached to it, which is a semantic, so in turn
immediately links to an image, a value, a common understanding in which you are
therefore judged on. For example the Apple brand, if you are to have a macbook,
iphone, ipad etc. the brand connotations are attached to you. You are sleek,
innovative, young, good quality, expensive, clean, an iperson: as Lasn wrote, ‘We
ourselves have been branded.’ (Lasn, 2000, p.xiii). We have effectively become
an object determined by what we wear, what we drive, what we listen to and
ultimately what the media and culture say we are.
One of the main
protagonists within the media that enforces this nature of society is
advertising. John Berger’s 1972 series of 'Ways of seeing'
shown on the BBC opens with a very strong representation of the medias creation
with a very similar viewpoint as to that of Lasn:
"In our urban world, on the streets that we
walk, the buses that we take, in the magazines that we read, on walls, on
screens, we are surrounded by images of an alternative way of life. We may
remember or forget theses images, but briefly we take them in and they
stimulate our imagination either by way of memory or anticipation - where is
this other way of life?"
He explains that the culture in which we live in
is constantly challenged by a fantasy displayed in the media that we
aim towards by participating in consumerism. The door to this fantasy we long for is the object we
desire and the media fool us repeatedly into thinking that object
will transform our identity and we can become those we envy in the images
through consumption of the products. As a result our identity is branded by
what we own in the life we do live in and we are constantly judged on
them against the images in the media to place our gender, age,
sexuality and in particular our social status in society. Lasn’s theory wrote
in 2000 on consumer culture expresses similar views as what Berger could touch
upon in 1972. We have now become so immersed in consumer culture that ‘Most of
us are now fully detached from the natural world’ (Lasn, 2000, P4) and it has
caused this knock on effect where we brand ourselves by what we buy unconsciously
and consciously. The media has made us want more through manipulative
advertising and ‘We embrace the value of More to compensate for lives that
seem, somehow, less.’ (Lasn, 2000, P11) with gratitude to the images Berger
states surrounds us of the alternative way of life and encourages the fantasy of
the ideal of gaining the life the false image in the media portrays. Lasn
explains that ‘the most powerful narcotic in the world is the promise of
belonging.’ (Lasn, 2000, P.xiii) and that this is best achieved by conforming
to the prescriptions of society. With the narcotic of belonging numbing the
lives that appear somehow less to those we witness in the media, being on every
corner for the right price there is a ‘manipulative corporate ethos’ (Lasn,
2000, P.xiii) driving our culture. It’s highly addictive and short-lived but it
is indispensible and endless.
Lasn focus is on America but his theory speaks for consumer culture in
general when he writes ‘culture is no longer created by the people.’ (Lasn,
2000, P.xiii). It is no longer what stories are passed through generations that
create our culture and whom we are but we are now told by corporations with
‘something to sell as well as to tell’ (Lasn, 2000, P.xiii), a story. Are
culture is now the spectacles that surround the production of culture such as
brands, celebrities and fashions and we are to listen, watch and based on that,
to buy. There is no room for authenticity or spontaneity; the media and
consumer culture have tamed the human spirit to be an object with an identity
to project an image that you are told to have, feel and behave like.
Dittmar has a very similar viewpoint on
advertising in consumer culture and she explains what it is that’s causes this effect
on people:
"Through
the advertising and fashion industries, consumer culture presents individuals
with images that contain "lifestyle and identity instructions that convey
unadulterated marketplace ideologies (i.e look like this, want these things,
aspire to this kind of lifestyle)" (Arnould & Thompson, 2005, P875).
The symbolism inherent in consumer goods can be defined as the images of
"idealized people associated with [the good]" (wright, Claiborne
& Sirgy, 1992), and the message is that buyers not only consume the actual
good advertised, but also its symbolic meanings (successful, happy, attractive,
glamorous) thus moving closer to the ideal identity portrayed by media
models."
Dittmar in the 2008 edition of Consumer
Culture, Identity and Well-Being talks about how advertising and in particular
the fashion industry within consumer culture tell people what they should do,
feel and look like. She adds that the symbolisms within the goods are seen as
ideal and the individual think they will consume when having ownership eg.
successful, attractive, is through the idealized people that advertise it. The
fantasy portrayed in advertising, which Berger comments on, is therefore closer
because of the opportunity to gain this good the character has and to gain this
ideal identity you witness and want. The significant impact this has on individuals
is linked to the ideal identities that are portrayed. Advertising doesn’t just
promote the products but the lifestyle and identity instructions with it,
providing cultural ideals of beauty, success and happiness. The adverts present
the problem that produces the self-doubt and negative emotions but also present
you with a solution: buy this and it will enhance your sense of worth, in
better words ‘because you’re worth it’. The productions of our
culture have tapped into our emotions and from this a ‘material self’ is identified. The identity of a person is
expanded beyond the body to include material goods and those are what determine
the identity of a person, not themselves. The goods ‘have become modern means
of acquiring, expressing and enhancing your identity’ (Dittmar, 2008, P12) and
generate your social status and personality where you are constantly trying to
improve yourself with hope of a better identity.
Not only does the media in consumer culture have this power of leaving
us constantly wanting for a better life, identity and status but also has the power
to manipulate what we in fact desire. Its power of manipulating us is through
our emotions where we can be persuaded into feeling and thinking differently
which inevitably leaves us not only being defined by objects we own but also
subconsciously being told what objects we should and should want to be defined
by. Advertising alters what we want, what we belief and what we value in life
by encouraging emotions when selling objects which John Berger states in his
four part series:
"Emotion
is a factor in persuasive advertising that aims to change viewpoints and not
simply to demonstrate the logical implications of data. In the grip of an
emotion, a person not only feels differently, but also tends to think
differently. Advertising that resonates emotionally stands more chance of
inducing a change in beliefs and values/motives/wants/desires than one based on
logic alone.”
The emotions that would once define a
person’s state now are associated with brands and objects: "Hunger equals
Big Mac. Drowsiness equals Starbucks. Depression equals Prozac." (Lasn,
2000, P41). Depending on what brand you relate emotions to and react upon
determines what kind of person you are and begins to define you to the rest of
the world. These brands have now become forms of communication for others to
acknowledge, process and judge you upon.
In modern society communication has changed,
"material possessions provide people with information about other people's
identities." (Lury, 2001, P8) and there is now an ‘“importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition of
material goods in achieving life goals" (Richins, 2004, P210)’ (Dittmar,
2008, p22) as a prime indicator of success to others. The key to happiness and
self- definition is through your material goods as your self is made up of what
you own. What you own then indicates your life achievements and how successful
you are, providing the rest of society with your identity. Consumer culture has
become the key to happiness and the answer to solving our emotions as well as
telling us what they are. Individuals start to feel depressed by their status
in society and the constant need of achievement with new possessions changing
what defines success. As a result ‘You buy a house with three bathrooms. You
park your BMW outside the double garage. When you grow depressed you go
shopping.’ (Lasn, 2000, P55) because the only way to solve your emotion and
lack of worth is through the promises the media give, people want to believe
what the media believes, that you are in fact worth it. These aren’t delivered so
you keep shopping in hope of happiness only for it to be short lived and
disappointed.
Lasn writes how consumer culture has control of
our emotions and how the constant determination to enhance our status and identity
in society has also affected our social culture. Our social culture once
defined individual’s identities but it is now that the consumerist cults
rituals that defines them:
"The
cult rituals spread themselves evenly over the calendar: Christmas,
Easter, Summer Olympics, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Halloween. Each has its own
imperatives - stuff you have to buy, things you have to do." (Lasn, 2000,
P55)
Due to the media encouraging consumer culture
every aspect of our lives is ruled over by this degradation of being a mere
object to be manipulated to consume. The narcotic of belonging is relevant
again, as if you aren’t to celebrate through the products of consumerism and as
the media tell you to then you are outcast as strange and are somehow
unfortunate and lacking in life. What used to be events and rituals of culture
from tales and history that defined us have become points of contact with even
more mass consumption and economic booms for the spectacles producing culture
and it this new consumption ritual that now defines us. A prime example of the
mass effect of consumer culture and the medias influence is Christmas. A once
religious holiday based on love and family has been transformed to one where
you are to ask and receive without question to still not be satisfied and shop
in the discounted sales immediately after to try gain contention. The
traditional generation of culture has now been lost through the media as they
dictate what beliefs, memories and activities that make up your culture should
be through highly publicized imagery which people copy instead of set. People
of the culture have now lost control and now ‘[The] family trip to a
shopping mall is the present-day incarnation of the sacred’ (Bauman, 2004, P71) leaving the true
origins of our identity and culture built over centuries being lost to
consumerism.
This can be shown in particular in an
advertising campaign combining of Selfridges, a high end department store that
transformed the shopping experience from the early 1900’s, Mother, a massive
advertising agency known for it’s ‘anti-advertising’ and a feminist, conceptual
artist Barbara Kruger. Kruger created a series of work which attempted
to reflect the pressures of consumption on women and to expose and challenge
the notion of identity construction through acts of consumption using phrases
such as ‘I shop therefore I am’. Her work was a materialistic version of René Descartes "cogito ergo sum", translation ‘I think, therefore I am’, which
supports Lasn’s theory that a person is defined not by what they think but what
they own through there consumption. Kruger’s art was then used as part of a
three-year collaboration campaign for Selfridge’s January Sales (see Fig 1 and
2).
The campaign brought the art into every day life but
only with the price of having to have a company logo and sponsorship deal along
side. Aiming it at a cultured middle class consumer the ‘edgy’ campaign openly
expressed the emptiness at the core of the capitalist lifestyle with the joke
being on the customers of Selfridges. If they aren’t to laugh along and be seen
as in on the joke like the ‘educated’ and ‘cultured’ then they fear to not
appear sophisticated, post-modern and media-savvy. What once was fine art that
was an incorporation of phrases on the distortion of desire and corporate
capitalism has been fed into the consumer culture to boost the culture for
further profit and gain and actually mocks us at the same time. This is a true
example of how deranged culture has become through consumption and mass media
advertising. People have lost the control of culture as the media and
corporations, in this example Selfridges and Mother, dictate what the culture
is and places people in positions with only one direction to follow in order to
stay in a status of society, laugh along with us. People aren’t to think for
themselves any longer, the natural way of living is lost beyond the
manufactured one and comes with waterproofing, breathable, adjustable fit for
all day comfort. Every connotation of life has features and fittings to make life
more ideal to live but happiness always comes with a price of consumerism. This
is a depressing factor of the transformation of society and people due to
consumer culture and its media but even the depression benefits them as stated
earlier: ‘when you grow depressed you go shopping’ (Lasn, 2000, P55).
In general, ‘having more things means enjoying
life less’ (Benson, 2008, P5) as acquiring objects fill our lives and end up
consuming us. Like the advertising campaign, communication has been confused and
the identity of things distorted. We spend all our time and money making decisions
about pointless objects to attain an identity we’ve been sold into believing
we’ll gain, in the pursuit of happiness when in fact it’s in pursuit of things
which won’t. Therefore as a result we miss things that will as we attempt to
satisfy ourselves with material goods. However through this miscommunication
and confusion we now have from over saturated media and consumption culture we
don’t realize that we are in this cycle and continue to solve the issue with
more pointless objects, and in turn it in fact feeds itself and replaces the
things that can achieve happiness and satisfaction completely. ‘We are pushed,
prodded, programmed to purchase’ (Bensons, 2008, P3) and essentially what are
social, psychological and spiritual needs we attempt to fill with material
possessions. This is no surprise when messages of anti consumerism is used to
promote spending at a massive department store, as how can we define and
respond appropriately and functionally when even anti consumerism is telling us
to buy.
As Bauman states in Consuming Life there is a
‘society of consumers’ that ‘promotes, encourages or enforces the choice of a
consumerist lifestyle and life strategy and dislikes all alternative cultural
options’. With this then comes a support for consumer culture and the acceptance
of advertising campaigns such as Selfridges ‘I shop therefore I am’. Due to the
lack of education and miss communication society begins to laugh along to
appear post-modern and media-savvy because they support the consumer lifestyle
as they feel it benefits them, they’ve been that manipulated and there identity
has become so warped. They are a product of the consumer culture objectified
into being a part of the culture and are therefore a society promoting and
encouraging it.
Not only has this loss and control of culture
objectified people but also it has in fact changed society, ‘our culture has
evolved into a consumer culture and we from citizens to consumers’ (Lasn, 2000,
P63). Consumer culture and the media have changed us from people into an object
to be aimed at to sell something, feeding our insecurities for profit and
manipulating us for self-system gain. It is a violent system that seduces us
and gives us a sense of security in society as
‘It is in acquiring, using and exchanging things that individuals come to have
social lives.’ (Lury, 2001, P12). Without this system we would merely exist and
therefore we can’t help but be controlled by the consumption. With a
significant impact on individuals linking to the ideal identities that promote
lifestyle and identity instructions displayed in the media and advertising it
would be hard to escape the system.
Lasn doesn’t see any evidence of this
changing as now there is an Americanization of the world. American culture has
been imperialized and forced upon other cultures until the cultures unify and
adopt American cultures ways of thinking even when it’s not in the cultures
best interest. This globalization has meant that this culture is produced to
benefit and feed consumer culture and the nature of this becomes part of an
individual, as it is now there culture. America’s values are broadcasted in
every area of the world not only in fashion trends and design but also the
media. You can be this person that the culture is saying to be and the media demonstrates
this through images that tell you, you can be whoever you want to be by buying.
The domination of the culture means that you want to be what you see everywhere
and what you see everywhere is America. America is who lead the world in
showing western values as they have control of mass media whether that is in
fashion or film, the propaganda is surrounding cultures and molding them to fit
the right attitudes to support consumer culture.
In conclusion there has been a clear
transformation on society and the people who live within it due to consumer
culture and its constant growth in the media. People have become an object of
the culture as it steadily transforms every aspect of life into an object to
sell and they become fully detached from the natural world and immersed with
the images surrounding them instructing consumerism. Consumer culture has
affected our identity, emotions, social communication and our values. It is a
powerful and manipulation system which has accessed our self and been exploited
for profitable gain. This system has created a constant need for wanting and an
unreachable promise of satisfaction through idealized and manufactured imagery
displayed in a variety of media. The world has been westernized for economic
excess but in this has actually objectified people and lost the creation of
culture that allows people to define themselves. Instead a replacement of
depression and mass product consumption has formed as society struggles to
survive amongst all the mass communication. The line between fantasy and
reality has been disguised and society has begun to feel it possible to achieve
their desires that are only manipulated and artificial images leaving society
in despair with an unattainable goal. This is a constant fight people have in
society today as they try and maintain an identity and ride the wave of
consumer culture. What is more of a challenge to comprehend is how can we
confront it when it’s controlling every decision we make.
Bibliography
Kalle Lasn (2000). Culture Jam. New York: Harper
Collins.
Helga Dittmar (2008). Consumer Culture,
Identity and Well-Being - The Search for the 'Good Life' and the 'Body Perfect'.
East Sussex: Psychology press.
Celia Lury (2001). Consumer Culture. Oxford: Polity.
Zygmunt Bauman (2004), Identity, Unknown
David B. Clarke (Editor), Marcus A. Doel
(Editor), Kate M. L. Housiaux (Editor) (2003). The Consumption Reader. New York: Routledge.
April Lane Benson (2008) To But or Not To Buy.
Boston: Trumpeter Books
Zygmunt Bauman (2008) Consuming Life.
Cambridge: Polity Press
John Berger (1972) 'Ways of seeing - Advertising',
Parts 1-4, BBC (www.youtube.com)
Available from:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmgGT3th_oI>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q0JvXiZw7o>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbebPdXv70w>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAJovNjXMTs>
Fig 1:
Fig 2:
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