Lecture 2 – Consumerism: Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture

Lecture 2 – Consumerism: Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture

Lecture Aims

-Analyse the rise of US consumerism
-Discuss the links between consumerism and our unconscious desires
-Sigmund Freud
-Edmund Bernays
-Consumerism as social control

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

-New theory of human nature
-Psychoanalysis
-Hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling
-The Interpretation of Dreams (1899)
-The Unconscious (1915)
-Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)
-Civilization & its Discontents (1930

1930

-Fundamental tension between civilization and the individual.
-Human instincts incompatible with the well-being of community.
-The Pleasure Principle

Edward Bernays (1891-1995)

-Press Agent
-Employed by public information during WW1
-Post war- set up ‘The Council on Public Relations’
-Birth of PR
-Based on the ideas of Freud (his uncle).
-Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923)
-Propaganda (1928)

Marketing hidden needs (1957)

-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
-Selling immortality

=Stop Shopping and start thinking=

Conclusion

-Consumerism is an ideological project
-We believe that through consumption our 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