National cash register building
Aims
-analyse the rise of us consumerism
-discuss the links between consumerism and our unconscious desire
-Sigmund Freud
-Edmund Bernays
-consumerism as social control
century of self- Adam Curtis
no logo brands globalisation resistance- Naomi Klein
Sigmund Freud
-psychoanalysis
-new theory of human nature
-hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling
-the interpretation of dreams
-the unconscious
-the ego and the id
-beyond the pleasure principle
-civilisation and its discontent
ego-rational understanding of yourself
id-base animalistic desires and instincts are repressed- they drive everything we do
-when your conscious mind is asleep the unconscious mind dreams and the id comes out
-fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual
-human instances incompatible with the well being of community
-the pleasure principle
-ego represses our id
-freud thinks that because we have to suppress these ids they create anxieties and discontentment etc for us so we let them out in other ways
we have hidden base desires that influence our actions that we need to let out to feel like were fulfilling life
Edward Bernays- freuds nephew
-Press agent
-Employed by public information during ww1
-post war-set up the council on public relations
-birth of PR
-based on the ides oaf freud
-crystallising public opinion
-propaganda
-He took the understanding of freud and said if we can make people feel that their desires are being met when they buy things, they will feel happy and also make a consumer demand.
-first early success-working with cigarette companies- getting past the social taboo of women smoking.
-easter day parade. paid debutants to light a cigarette at the same time
-suffragettes- early form of feminism- lighting up touches of freedom- symbolic display
-cigarette smoking became popular among women because they relate it to being independent, sexually desirable, etc
-product placement
-celebrity endorsements
-the use of pseudo-scientific reports
-makes you equate the product with being successful and desirable
Fordism
-moving assembly line
-standard production models built as they move through the factory
-requires large investment but increases productivity so much that relatively high wages can be paid, allowing the workers to buy the product they produce
-the model T ford-
-1910-20,000 were produced a year
-1816- 600,0000
-1927-15 million
assembly time reduced from 12.5 to 1.5 hours
as the world incases its production and created more and more things it becomes important for manufacturers to distinguish their product from others.
this is where branding comes in.
a common technique was to give the product an individual identity 'aunt Jemimas pancake flower' makes you think its more special of has a secret ingredient/special recipe when its actually just pancake flower.
-cars are sold not only on their merit but for the power of it making you more sexually desirable.
-masculine, in control, head of the family, impress the wife, man drives-women gets driven.
-by 1919- what more being advertised it that if you buy this car you are richer you can have the fancy house and look more sophisticated.
-things shift from a need culture to a desire culture- you buy because you want not because you need.
-marketing hidden needs
-selling emotional security
-selling reassurance of worth
-selling ego gratification
-selling creative outlets
-selling love objects
-selling sense of power
-selling sense of roots
-selling immortality
Walter Lippmann- public opinion
-started researching what the public want so they can tell the government what to do about it.
1917 in russia the workers army overthrow someone.
people thought if they didn't keep people happy they would start a war
The great depression- if you let big businesses do what they want you will end up destroying society
Roosevelt- the new deal-increase taxes to give to unemployed/homeless-ameican government to have total control- project where the government intervene and create a farer society
labourers choice- choice of the worker.
what makes america great is the amount if things in america that you can buy! independent living in a country of free choice.
'Democracity' your world tomorrow- not democracy just the bankrupt illusion- all kept docile, fooled into thinking were living rounded meaningful lives.
-consumerism is an idealogical project
-we belief that through consumption out desires can be met.
-the consumer self
-the legacy of bernays/pr can be felt in all aspects of C21st society
-the conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue to this day
-to what extent are our lives 'free' under the western consumerist system?
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