COP Lecture 09 - Consumerism

Sigmund Feud (1856-1959)
Work
. New theory of human nature
. Psychoanalysis
. Hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling
[suppressing our animal instincts, to fight/ to mate for dominance amongst our community]
. The interpretation of dreams
. The unconscious
. The ego and the id [the id is our animalistic/ childlike motivator]
. Beyond the pleasure principle
. Civilisation and it's discontents

Freud argued that our dangerous desires are incompatible with everyday scenarios therefore we must suppress these in order to get on in society.

He believed that war shouldn't have come as a surprise, if you anger someone so much they're going to lash out and cause a reaction.

Edward Bernays (1891-1995)
[Freud's Nephew]

1920 Women smoking was a taboo, wasn't a lady like thing to do.
> Bernays was employed to break this and encourage women to smoke therefore increasing sales in cigarettes.
> To do this he set up a media stunt and had actresses dress up in elegant/ feminine clothing and at certain points they would light up a cigarette and get photographed by the media. The press were led to believe that these women were suffragettes burning 'a touch of freedom' therefore the popularity of cigarettes exploded overnight to the female market.

1923 Comes up with the discipline of public relations, this is a fusion of organised management of public opinion.

1924 Presidential candidate Coolidge asked Bernays to help people like him and improve his chances of becoming president. To do this Bernays used a celebrity endorsement from a famous jazz artist of the time.

1928 Bernays produced propaganda for the war

FORDISM
Ford developed a system of making things which involved a production line in a huge factory therefore increasing speed of production. This resulted in mass production.
1910 = 20,000 cars produced. --> 1927 = 15 million cars produced

Mass production meant there were more products to sell, from this branding was invented.
Things were made to sound more loving and cared for such as 'Aunt Jemima's' which humanises the brand and 'hartleys' which makes the brand seem much more luxurious.

Bernays was the first person to sell a motor car with the idea of male virility, having this car puts you in charge. You can drive your family around and be the dominant one. Products began to be advertised in a way that made them seem as though they will change your life.

This created a shift in society, going from manufacturing things that people need, to things that people desire.

Marketing Hidden Needs:

. Selling emotional security
. Selling reassurance of worth [human animalistic need, the need to feel loved]
. Selling ego gratification [making your product appear to promise you'll get the life style you want just by simply buying the item. Making things seem sexy.
. Selling immortality [the promise your name won't die and you'll leave a lasting legacy behind.

We are being distracted from the bad things happening around us by being encouraged to buy things. A social experiment to keep us pacified.

America
The great depression

Roosevelt believed that tax should be increased and spent on things such as housing, and that businesses should have less freedom (regulating markets).

Businesses clubbed together and created a giant publicity stunt to get Roosevelt out. Promoting consumerism as the way forward showing people a future world filled with robots and the latest technology (propaganda helped by Bernays)

Aspects of Bernays public relations is still visible in the 21st century, consumerism wasn't an accident it was created to manipulate us.