As an advertising major I am extremely interested in observing the strategies and techniques companies use sell their products to their consumers. I recently read an essay by Benjamin Barber titled Overselling Capitalism with Consumerism that really stuck out to me because the author discusses how society runs and how companies take advantage of this.
We live in a society that is run on ‘the next best thing’. There is even a nation wide holiday dedicated to shopping. As the essay mentioned, consumption is seen as good for the economy in producing goods and services and in turn profit for the producers. Even as young children the surrounding environment is teaching us that we constantly need more. However, I agree that we have access to too much shopping. If you take a normal clothing store, such as Forever 21, they receive new clothing every day. With a turn over of new items in this short of a timespan, consumers are sure to feel as if they are not up to date on the fashion.
We live in a society that is run on ‘the next best thing’. There is even a nation wide holiday dedicated to shopping. As the essay mentioned, consumption is seen as good for the economy in producing goods and services and in turn profit for the producers. Even as young children the surrounding environment is teaching us that we constantly need more. However, I agree that we have access to too much shopping. If you take a normal clothing store, such as Forever 21, they receive new clothing every day. With a turn over of new items in this short of a timespan, consumers are sure to feel as if they are not up to date on the fashion.
I recently watched a documentary
discussing our over consumption titled, The
True Cost. This documentary shows that our consumption creates a huge
problem with the disposable of our consumption. With a high turnover rate of
new fashion leads to a large amount of clothes sent to places such as Good
Will. Out of all the clothes sent to the Good Will, only about 30% is actually
donated or sold to those who need it. The majority is literally dumped in third
world countries. It may not seem like our constant need to buy more things is
hurting anything more than our wallet, but there is actually a lot more at
risk.
Hey Lexi,
ReplyDeleteI totally get that the United States population is much too concerned and obsessed with the here and now as well as our image, however really is that all that much of a bad thing? I understand that the funnel type trickle down economy does not work so no matter how much we spend on new clothes or anything for that matter the price will never get lower, only possibly increase do to such massive amounts of consumption, however I almost like that statistic regarding GoodWill. Knowing that the clothes I don't want will at least be used by someone who will want them. Even if the clothes are just a mere Halloween costume. At least they were wore one more time than they would have been. I'm not saying that living in such an economy where there is always something new to buy to replace the old outdated version is always good, however, I am glad I do live in this economy.