Consumer capitalism describes a theoretical economic and cultural condition in which consumer demand is manipulated, in a deliberate and coordinated way, on a very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the advantage of sellers. Supply and demand is an Economic model describing effects on price and quantity in a Market. Mass Marketing is a market coverage strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and go after the whole market with one offer
The phrase is controversial. It suggests manipulation of consumer demand so potent that it has a coercive effect, amounts to a departure from free-market capitalism, and has an adverse effect on society in general. Coercion (co-er-shion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way (whether through action or inaction by use of threats A free market is a Market in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers Some use the phrase as shorthand for the broader idea that the interests of other entities (governments, religions, the military, educational institutions) are intertwined with corporate interests, and that those entities also participate in the management of social expectations through mass media.
As described in William Leach's Land of Desire, the origins of consumer capitalism are found in the development of American department stores in the 1850s, notably the advertising and marketing innovations at Wanamaker's in Philadelphia. A department store is a Retail establishment which specializes in selling a wide range of products without a single predominant merchandise line. Wanamaker's Department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Leach argues there was indeed a deliberate and coordinated effort among American 'captains of industry' to detach consumer demand from 'necessity' (which can be satisfied) to 'desire' (which can never be satisfied).
In 1919 Edward Bernays began his career as the 'father of public relations' and successfully applied the developing principles of psychology, sociology and motivational research to manipulate public opinion in favor of products like cigarettes, soap, and Calvin Coolidge. Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Edward Louis Bernays ( November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995) is considered one of the fathers of the field of Public relations along Public relations (PR is the practice of managing the flow of Information between an Organization and its Publics Public relations - often referred John Calvin Coolidge Jr (July 4 1872 January 5 1933 was the thirtieth President of the United States (1923–1929 (Bernays was later dismayed to find his work Crystallizing Public Opinion was a direct inspiration for Joseph Goebbels' propaganda campaigns. Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation ˈɡœbəls English generally ˈɡɝbəlz (29 October 1897 1 May 1945 was a German politician and Reich Minister of Public ) New techniques of mechanical reproduction developed in these decades improved the channels of mass-market communication and its manipulative power. This development was described as early as the 1920s by Walter Benjamin and related members of the Frankfurt School, who foresaw the commercial, societal and political implications. Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( July 15, 1892 &ndash September 27, 1940) was a German - Jewish Marxist The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy.
In business history, the mid-1920s saw Alfred P. Sloan stimulating increased demand for General Motors products by instituting the annual model year change and planned obsolescence, a move that changed the dynamics of the largest industrial enterprise in the world, away from technological innovation and towards satisfying market expectations. Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr ( May 23, 1875 – February 17, 1966) was a long-time President and Chairman of General General Motors Corporation ( GM) ( is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in 1908 and headquartered in the United States. Planned obsolescence (also built-in obsolescence The purpose of planned obsolescence is to hide the real cost per use from the consumer and charge a higher price than they would
Critics of the theory of consumer capitalism hold that advertising is neither coersive nor probably effective, that the 1958 Edsel catastrophe is proof that even the powerful automobile industry cannot successfully manipulate public opinion, and that allegations of a coordinated effort to manipulate public opinion are nothing more than a conspiracy theory. The Edsel was a marquee division of Ford Motor Company during the 1958 1959 and 1960 model years A conspiracy theory attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually Political, Social or Historical events or the concealment
An important contribution to the critique of consumer capitalism has been made by the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, but very little of this has been translated into English. Bernard Stiegler (born April 1, 1952) is a French Philosopher and Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Stiegler argues that capitalism today is governed not by production but by consumption, and that the techniques used to create consumer behavior amount to the destruction of psychic and collective individuation. Individuation (Latin principium individuationis) is a concept which appears in numerous fields and may be encountered in work by Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler The diversion of libidinal energy toward the consumption of consumer products, he argues, results in an addictive cycle, leading to hyperconsumption, the exhaustion of desire, and the reign of symbolic misery. Stiegler discusses consumer capitalism in his article The Disaffected Individual. His response to the situation can be discerned by reading the manifesto of his political group, Ars Industrialis.
An important documentary series concerning these issues is The Century of the Self, directed by Adam Curtis. The Century of the Self is an acclaimed documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis released in 2002 Adam Curtis (born 1955 is a British Television documentary maker who has during the course of his television career worked as a writer producer
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