CoP 2 Lecture 7, Consumerism: Persuasion, Society Brand, Culture

Points of lecture - 

Rise of US consumerism 

Links between consumerism and our unconscious desires

Sigmund Freud

Edmund Bernays 

Consumerism as social control

Sources

Adam Curtis - Century of Self, 2002

Naomi Klein - No Logo, 1998

Freud - 

New theory of human nature

Psychoanalysis

Primitive forces and animal instincts need controlling

Civilisation and it's discontents 

Unconscious part of your mind is made up of ID, Ego and Superego

ID is our unconscious part of our mind that makes us do things, most natural 

1930

Fundamental tension between civilization and the individual 

Human instincts incompatible with the well being of community

The Pleasure Principle 

The animalistic desires an not compatible with modern society, so they are suppressed

WW1 indicated Freud's theories and his ideas of repressed animal instinct. Things like this is expected.

Bernays -

Press Agent

Employed by public info during WW1

Set up The Council on Public Relations

Birth of PR

Based on his uncles Freuds ideas

Crystallizing Public Opinion 1923

Propaganda 1928

He realised if you make people think that their instinct desires are met when they buy things, they will buy more and create a demand for things. [PR]

He made it less of a taboo for women to smoke, 1929 Easter day Parade. He paid all these debutantes to start smoking, tipped off the newspapers. Bernays made women want to smoke, feel independent and feel sexy.

Product placement

Celebrity endorsements 

The use of pseudoscientific reports

Politicians began using these techniques to become cooler and make them more attractive for everyone

Fordism

Henry Ford

Transposes Taylorism to car factories of Detroit 

Assembly line

Productivity increases to increase the wage, allowing workers to buy more products

Products were being made more and more, so branding and identity was needed. In order to make people want to buy their product over someone else's.

Products are now sold not on the need for something but the desire for it. 

Marketing hidden needs -

Selling emotional security

Selling reassurance of worth

Selling ego-gratification

Selling Creative outlets

Selling Love Objects

Selling sense of power

Selling a sense of roots

Walter Lippmann 
Public Opinion 1920
A new elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd
'manufacturing consent'