| |
| Join Our Newsletter |
 Please Select sub-criteria |  |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Searching for Happiness in Western Societies |
04 |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
The system needs individual consumers
Western society at its core is based on a system of capitalist economics; it represents a system of production and exchange of goods and services within a free market context. For the system to work, economies must continually grow. For an economy to grow firms must increase the production of goods and services and people must keep on consuming more of these goods and services.
Thus the system must keep on motivating people to want things. In most areas, producers face the problem of excess capacity; given their economies of scale, their proficiency in mass-production, as well as the technology they have acquired in the last two hundred years, producers are able to make much more than consumers require in almost every industry. People today do not suffer from hunger in the Western world - rather we are presented with such a variety of foodstuffs that our problem now is an epidemic of obesity.
Thus Capitalism suffers from a problem of surplus. One way for firms to cut back on their capacity to produce things is for them to buy out and shutdown their competitors; but this means making people redundant. Since such people are also needed to consume the goods and services in the first place, this leads to a vicious circle. Another way of addressing the issue of over-capacity is to try and open up new markets. But in most developing nations, since people have very limited purchasing power, there is little or no money to be made in these markets.
Thus the most reliable way for producers to address this problem of over-capacity is to encourage people living in the Western societies to keep on consuming their goods and services at ever increasing rates.
There is a group of people whose mission statement is to understand and determine people’s needs, educate them about the availability of products and important product features, and also develop strategies to persuade people to buy products; they are the marketers. If marketers are the commanding generals in this war of persuasion then their foot soldiers are the advertising companies and their most powerful weapon is the mass media.
One hundred years ago the printed word was really the only way to convey information to the masses. With modern technologies we now have, in almost every home, many different ways of receiving information: radio, television, magazines, the Internet, and so on. These mass media have an immense power to shape our values, attitudes, and behaviour; they create our consciousness and project lifestyles that we try and live out. The people who provide the funding for the mass media are the advertisers.
Using the power of imagery, the mass media aim to persuade us, shape our personalities and influence our behaviour. There is almost no space for neutral unbiased information in the commercially driven mass media. In the service of the Capitalist system, the mass media makes the consumption of goods and services an exciting and an emotionally fulfilling activity, one that gives people’s lives purpose and meaning. For example, when we dress ourselves, we do so with clothing that bears the names of running shoes, construction companies or fizzy drinks; these names and logos represent identities that we feel affiliation towards. Our behaviour is shaped so that we want to emulate the lifestyles and identities that advertisers have branded - famous football stars, basketball stars or other celebrities.
As Richard Tomkins argues , much of this persuasion happens in very clever ways. In order to avoid people suffering from advertising fatigue, much of the imagery used to promote a product is indirectly used. Hollywood films and even pop songs can be full of product placements; professional sports have been made into just another branch of the advertising industry. In fact no cultural or artistic event can take place without commercial sponsorship; fashion magazines are often little more than shopping catalogues.
As Professor Philip Kotler, one of the world’s leading marketing gurus said in an interview : “If there are no more needs - by which I mean, everything we think of, there’s someone supplying it - then we have to invent new needs… Now, I know that’s been criticised. People say: ‘why are you doing that to us? Why don't you leave us alone?’ But part of capitalism is, it’s a system where we've got to motivate people to want things so they’ll work for these things. If there’s no more things they want, they won’t work as hard: they’ll want 35-hour weeks, 30-hour weeks and so on… Yes, marketing does drive us to new wants. You have a Ford, now you want a BMW; and then, if you have enough money, they’re going to get you for a Lamborghini. And from a philosophical point of view, people can talk about our being manipulated.”
| |
| |
| |
| |
« First < 2 3 4 5 6 >
Page 4 of 6 pages
| |
|
|
