Consumer culture is born.
Americans weren't always addicted to buying things.
Long before U.S. consumers racked up
$11.3 trillion in aggregate debt, people used to save money for things they actually needed.
But in the age of plenty that followed World War I, corporations
countered the threat of overproduction with a manipulative psychological
strategy.
"We must shift America from a needs, to a desires culture," wrote Paul Mazur of Lehman Brothers. "People
must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old had
been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man's
desires must overshadow his needs."
This conspiracy, enabled by new sophistication in advertising and supported by the government, was shockingly effective.
For more on the origins of consumer culture, we turn to the BBC's excellent documentary, "Century Of Self."
American
corporations were rich and powerful at the end of WWI, but they were
worried about the danger of overproduction. What if there people
acquired enough goods and simply stopped buying?
Everything from shoes to cars was promoted in functional terms, meant to appeal to a rational consumer.
Banker
Paul Mazur of Lehman Brothers saw the way forward: "We must shift
America from a needs, to a desires culture. People must be trained to
desire, to want new things even before the old had been entirely
consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man's desires must
overshadow his needs."
A
new kind of advertising was key to this possible, and the pioneer in
this field was Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, who showed
corporations how to make people want things they didn't need by linking
mass-produced goods to unconscious desires.
Bernays claims he was the first to tell car companies they could sell cars as a symbol of male sexuality.
He
famously shattered the taboo against women smoking by persuading a
group of debutantes to light up at a parade — an event he leaked to the
media ahead of time with the phrase "Torches Of Freedom" — thereby
linking smoking with challenging male authority.
He pioneered techniques like product placement and celebrity endorsement, relentlessly repeating the pro-consumption message.
"I
wonder why you all want to dress always the same, with the same hats
and the same coats," said celebrity aviator Mrs Stillman in one
promotional video. "I'm sure all of you are interesting and have
wonderful things about you, but looking at you in the street you all
look so much the same. And that's why I'm talking to you about the
psychology of dress."
In
1927 an American journalist wrote: "A change has come over our
democracy, it is called consumptionism. The American citizens first
importance to his country is now no longer that of citizen, but that of
consumer.
The
rise of consumerism helped to create a stock market boom—which Bernays
encouraged by promoting the idea that ordinary people should buy shares.
Elected in 1928, President Herbert Hoover was the first politician to embrace the central role of consumerism.
Hoover
told a group of advertisers and public relations men: "You have taken
over the job of creating desire and have transformed people into
constantly moving happiness machines. Machines which have become the key
to economic progress."
But
the rise of American consumerism would not be without an opposite
effect. In late October 1929, while Hoover and the leaders of the
business world were at a party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
lightbulb and the legacy of capitalism, stocks began to plunge — and
within days would crash.
You all know what happened next.
But
consumerism wasn't done. The National Association of Manufacturers and
other groups launched PR campaigns to promote the benefits of
capitalism.
World War II jump-started American industry, and when it was all over the consumer movement was stronger than ever.
And the rest is history. Now check out ...
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/birth-of-consumer-culture-2013-2?op=1#ixzz2Ltktc4QN
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