Consumer - The word consume dates back to the 14th century, meaning to use up, to destroy, to devour, to waste, to squander and to exhaust. By the 19th century 'the consumer' was an abstract term which provided an opposite to the term 'the producer'.
In today’s society we all have a desire to own new and/or attractive objects that are often impractical for our lifestyle, unaffordable and not necessary for our everyday needs. Products are advertised in such a way that we feel we have to have them in order to feel good or be better people. It is all about labels, names and design. We seem to forget about an item’s use, cost or true value, we just have the desire to own it.
The way an object is displayed, presented and packaged ultimately affects the way we look at it and can increase or decrease our desire to want it simply by targeting us in the right way. I began to question how much direct and indirect advertising can influence our thoughts and how it convinces us that we really need those objects we desire. I started by researching how products are advertised in the media, particularly in magazines. I looked at the way brand names, shops and stores are regularly mentioned in magazine articles, an indirect form of advertising that can influence us without us even realising.
I started by looking through fashion/gossip magazines to see how many times they actually mention different stores or brands. Whether it was a direct advert that the company had actually paid for to be placed in the magazine or whether it had been included by the magazine in articles or fashion tips.
The first magazine I looked through was 'Look' as it had an article about 'Designer to High Street looks'. This article is a great example of the sneaky ways of making us want things we do not need and perhaps cannot afford. The adverts influence our thoughts by pushing the ‘new’ latest trends, even if we've only just finished shopping for last week’s so called ‘latest trends'.
The articles convince us that we can look like celebrities, be up-to-date and fashionable and have designer styles at high street prices. But what do we do with all this new stuff? Getting consumed with the latest ‘must have’, means regularly purchasing items to keep up, and buying a lot more than you need or can afford. Fashion items often appear to be out of date before they have even been worn, so you go on to the next thing, while items you own still have the tags on and sit in a cupboard unworn.
A good illustration of this is in the work of Jeff Koons, in which he displays a collection of brand new vacuum cleaners. Each vacuum cleaner is an upgrade, a new improved version, of the one before, yet none of them have been used. We do exactly the same with clothes and other desirable objects. We buy something brand new then see something newer/better/faster and we want to buy that as well. The previous item is discarded, forgotten about or disposed of because we have something we perceive to be better because advertisers convince us we need them.
Jeff KoonsNew Hoover convertibles. . .
1981-87
"...everything has to be disposable. Because you see the main thing today is shopping. Years ago a person, if he was unhappy, did not know what to do with himself; he go to church, start a revolution, something. Today you’re unhappy? Can’t figure it out? What is the salvation ? Go shopping.“…Arthur Miller, The Price, 1968
These words spoken by a furniture salesman in the Arthur Miller play are as true today as they were in the 1960s. Whenever we are unhappy or having a bad day, we are tempted by adverts for discounts, new trends/fashions, the latest handbag, dress or pair of shoes. We get into our heads that shopping will somehow solve our problems and make us happy, yet after we've spent the money we soon start to regret spending it. We become depressed and unhappy realise it wasn’t worth it, yet soon we are convinced to do it again. Its a vicious cycle of highs and lows, and although we put ourselves in that vulnerable position, advertisers, in particular in the fashion industry, feed on it.
To research this I went through the popular magazine 'Look' using post-it notes to mark every time a brand or shop name was used, whether it was in an article about a trend, or an individual piece of clothing a store was currently selling. I individually marked the main 3 high street stores that a large percentage of the public shop in - Topshop (Light Pink), River Island (Green) and New Look (Yellow). I then marked well known shops that the majority of people will have heard of before (Orange) as well as known, but less well established shops that fewer people recognise (Pink).
To figure out accurately how many times each shop was mentioned I went back through the magazine and tallied each mention, so that I would be able to compare the results with other magazines.
Topshop ||||||||||| 11
New Look |||||||| 8
River Island ||||| 5
Next ||||||| 7
Primark | 1
H&M ||||| 5
Debenhams |||| 4
M&S |||| 4
Fred Perry | 1
GAP | 1
House of Fraser || 2
Warehouse ||| 3
Dorothy Perkins |||||| 6
Oasis ||| 3
ASOS ||||||||| 9
Asda (George) | 1
French Connection |||| 4
Miss Selfridges |||| 4
BHS | 1
Monsoon | 1
Lipsy ||| 3
Very.com || 2
Zara | 1
Coast || 2
Traffic People | 1
Tony Burch | 1
Aftershock || 2
Illamasqua | 1
Owntherunway | 1
Motel | 1
Wallis | 1
Kate Kanzier | 1
Boohoo | 1
Paprika | 1
Kate Spade | 1
Mango ||| 3
Runway Route | 1
Cath Kidson | 1
The top five high street shops mentioned were Topshop, New Look, River Island, Next and H&M. (ASOS for online shop). This popularity is mirrored in their high street presence, with stores in almost every town and city. I then compared my results from 'Look' with tallies I made with two more magazines, 'More' and 'Heat'. The top five in 'More' were Topshop, Boohoo, New Look, River Island and Primark. Although I found that 'Heat' did not contain many specific fashion pages, Topshop, New Look and M&S were still the most mentioned of stores.
Topshop was the most mentioned shop in all three magazines, yet there was not a single direct advert placed in any of the magazine by Topshop themselves. All the mentions of Topshop came from general latest fashion pages, seasonal trends and in numerous articles about how to dress like a celebrity at high street prices by matching items closely with the designer versions. This shows that store products are constantly being indirectly advertised, even when the stores may not have paid for advertising space.
Despite the fact that companies such as Topshop don't pay for whole page advertising spreads in magazines, they are likely to pay to get mentioned or to be given the opportunity to be included in fashion articles. They will also offer new season items for review before they hit the shelves. However, this isn't the only way they catch our eye, they use massive signs in store windows with the words SALE or DISCOUNT, adverts on popular online networking sites such as Facebook, regular email updates off discounts for that day only and large advertising hoardings in towns and cities, which you can’t miss even on a short walk. They try everything to capture our attention and keep that constant want for more in our minds..
I know from experience what it is like to give into temptation, the sales, the discounts and the perceived need for something new because you don't want to be seen in the same thing over and over again. The desire to want to look good and keep ahead of trends is so strong that I have found myself buying something new every week, with constant advertising making it even harder to resist. You see a sale or 20% off sign in the window and you head straight in hoping for a bargain. These are all ‘wants’ not ‘needs’, is any of it really necessary? What would life be like if we had nothing?
While thinking about and researching this concept, I came across the English artist, Michael Landy, known in his own words as “that bloke who destroyed all his own belongings”. In his performance piece installation Break Down (2001), he shredded/granulated everything he owned, from his socks to family photographs over a period of two weeks. When he had finished, all he had left was his cat and his girlfriend, the rest of his possessions were gone!
Michael Landy said that the exhibition was an examination of society's romance with consumerism. "It's about the amount of raw material that goes into making objects and about the lifespan of things."
"I see this as the ultimate consumer choice. Once Break Down has finished, a more personal break down, will commence - life without my self-defining belongings."
Since I researched this piece of work by Michael Landy, it has made me think more about life, and what we really need rather than what we want. I have found that I no longer feel the need to shop because I know that it is often for the wrong reasons and in the long term that it won't make me happy. Everyone has bad days but it doesn't mean you should rely on shopping to cheer you up because it just won't beyond that initial burst of excitement. Friends, family, pets, a long walk, a good book and so many more things are better and more rewarding than shopping. It is difficult to resist, but I no longer want to be sucked into the consumer driven world and I think more people, especially those that are young and easily influenced should take a look at Landy’s work and think about what they are doing. Perhaps if more people did this and avoided the consumer driven magazines, they would be happy and more satisfied with what they have and not be sliding down the slippery slope to debt and misery. Shopping and spending money in stores that force feed us adverts telling us
what we need, are just there to make money for themselves. They don't care how we feel or who we are, they just want the money we've earned. WE SHOULDN'T GIVE IN!
We should all be happy about what we have and not what we don't have. Posted by Pixie at 14:46 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
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