...November 18, 2014 Consumerism: Gotta Buy ‘Em All It is the day after Thanksgiving, known colloquially to Americans as “Black Friday”. Hundreds of thousands of shoppers line up outside of department stores, anxiously waiting to get their hands on the latest of gadgets and gizmos to purchase for families, friends, and loved ones for the holiday season. Many of the retailers in America have offered attractive promotional sales on this day to attract high traffic and volume in their stores. Realizing this, consumers in America who take a part in Black Friday see this as a fight to the death. This “fight to the death” literally came true in the year 2013, as one death and fifteen injuries resulted from the madness of the shopping event, according to BlackFridayDeathCount.com. On the flip side for businesses, Americans spent an average of $407.02 from the Thursday through Sunday that bookends Black Friday, as stated by the National Retail Federation. This topsy-turvy day recognized by a vast majority of American culture has been seen by many as the yearly peak of the country’s ever-increasing trend towards consumerism. Consumerism, the belief that goods give meaning to individuals and their roles in society, has presented itself to Americans in both a positive and negative spirit. On the one hand, consumer spending drives the economy, gives consumers a vast myriad of retailers to choose from, and renders shopping as a social experience. On the other hand, consumerism can render...
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...U.S. Governments Role in Consumer Protection & Advertising The United States government has continued to grow in size and influence, its effect on marketing is no exception. Consumer protection and product safety include the efforts made by government, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals to create, protect, and enforce the rights of consumers who buy products or services. This may also be identified as consumerism, or the organized efforts of individuals, groups, and organizations to protect the rights of consumers (Pride102). Consumer protection was brought upon through several medians, but is primarily attributed to background legislation. The first major federal law to affect the marketing environment was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which prohibited contracts, combinations, and conspiracies to restrain trade, in an attempt to discourage monopolies (Pride 73). Many federal laws regarding consumer protection have since followed, such as the Wheeler-Lea Act of 1936 and the FTC Act of 1914. Such legislation is generally the work of the Federal Trade Commission, which was created in the aforementioned FTC Act of 1914, and is considered the primary consumer protection agency at the federal level. By the 1950’s the consumerism movement had a substantial following and consumers began pushing for legal protection against malicious business practices. Two of the most well known and significant consumer activists are Ralph Nader and the late John...
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...discussing the ethics of consumerism, it is important to develop an- in depth understanding of the history of the subject before having the discussion of the moralistic opinions about. The video The Story of Stuff provided the background necessary to understand the reasons why there are so many issues with consumerism. The argument in the video is that the United States has become a consumerist society since the early 1900’s. A consumerist society is defined as one directed largely by the accumulation and consumption of material goods (O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy, 2002). This consumerism was said to have peaked during the 1950’s when it is said that happiness and contentment with life was at its greatest. Today, things have changed significantly. The adoption of modern marketing practices has led to the emergence of consumerist societies in the swelling middle classes (Chan and Cui, 2004). On one hand, this means that more people are earning enough money to spend. However, the increase in the spending power of the middle class had led to greater demand for consumer goods and thus the resources that are used to make them. The video discussed how much marketing has played a role in the way that people advocate for consumerism. Those who advocate against consumerism stated that social progress and economic development have caused contemporary marketing practice to contribute to a consumerist or materialistic society. The main issue with consumerism seems to be the fact...
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...In her article, “The Signs of Shopping” Anne Norton says, “walking from window to another, observing one another, shoppers, especially the astute and observing adolescents, acquire a facility with the language of commodities…shop windows teach composition” (88). In the following essay, we will be looking at how consumerism and advertising influence and help us develop our identity. What is identity? According to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary, identity is the qualities, ideas and beliefs that differentiate a person from the rest of the group. Our identities form from different aspects of our lives; such as family life, school life, friends, professors and religion. In addition, places such as the mall also helps shape our identity. The mall...
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...Consumerism History of Consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in an elevated amount. Consumerism as an ideology first appeared in Western Europe roughly three hundred years ago. It gave a rise in consumer’s need and importance to the display of material items. It promoted economic progress, a rise in small shops, an increase in the growth of cities, and an incline in individualism. A shift in the market hit right before the Industrial Revolution. Capitalist development and the industrial revolution focused on infrastructure and production and manipulation of fossil fuels. In 1919 consumerism began to sweep over the American population when General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) was established. The General Motors Acceptance Corporation mission was to issue loans to customers who had purchased a vehicle. Americans started the notion of “Keeping up with the joneses” which is the idea that Americans compare themselves to their neighbors, defining each stance in socio-cultural inferiority. With this new need for status with possessions was thought to be the beginning of the American consumer culture. Soon after The Great Depression and World War broke out. When the war-ceased consumers went wild, credit cards issued first for convince took off quickly to show status through the products each individual had. Consumerism gathered strength in the United States through internal trade growing, expansion...
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...|Individual |Resource: Evaluating the Research Process Grading Criteria. |1-23-14 |135 | |Evaluating the Research |Select one of the articles collected in the Week One Annotated Bibliography assignment. | | | |Process |Write a 1,400- to -1,750-word paper that evaluates the research process within your chosen | | | | |article. | | | | |Explain the research process and what you can assume from the study from the following | | | | |perspectives: | | | | | | | | | |How is the literature review used in this research? | | | | |What are ethical considerations for data collection? | | | | |What is the data telling us in...
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...AN ANALYTICAL BUSINESS REPORT ON WHAT ETHICAL CONSUMERISM MEANS FOR BUSINESSES Name Course Professor/ Tutor University City/ State Date Executive Summary This paper presents an analytical business report on ethical consumerism. The aim of this assignment is to reveal the meaning of ethical consumption in markets. To this end, Adidas Company is critically reviewed. Adidas manufactures sportswear and equipment. This report uses a survey design where a questionnaire or an opinion survey is the data collection instrument. Ethical consumerism is influenced by several factors some of which are, the quality of the products, advertisements, brand image and the moral value that users attach to different products. Corporate social responsibility and appropriate advertising are some of the activities that improve ethical consumerism. The data collected in this study is analyzed and presented in tables and figures. Contents Executive Summary 2 List of Tables 4 List of Figures 5 1.0 Background of the Study 6 1.1 Introduction 6 2.0 Literature Review 6 2.1 Overview of Ethical consumerism 6 2.2 Review of Adidas Company 9 2.2.1 Adidas Mission, Vision and Values 10 3.0 Methodology 12 4.0 Results of Survey 12 4.1 Response rate 12 4.2 Price of Adidas products 13 4.3 Quality of Adidas products 15 4.4 Brand Image of Adidas 16 4.5 Convenience for purchasing Adidas products...
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...Consumerism: Its Huge Role in the Environment America is one of the most affluent nations in the world. Many Americans are able to live a life with such disposable luxury that they are often unaware of the impact of their choices. There is a constant bombardment of media images in daily life that manipulate people into believing that their desire for things is an actual need to have them thus creating a constant consumer. Consumerism is at an all time high and the rate at which such affluent nations consume is causing a dramatic change in the environment. After reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce it has become increasingly evident that as a nation there needs to be more awareness of how consumerism is rapidly changing how life is lived. In order to fully understand how consumerism impacts the environment there needs to be a careful understanding of what makes humans consume at such high rates, what role businesses play in catering to the wants and needs of consumers, and most importantly how the environment responds to all of these new demands. It is important to understand what consumerism is and how it affects life. The Oxford English Dictionary defines consumerism as, “the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods”. In his book The Ecology of Commerce, Hawken states, ”every American consumes about 36 pounds of resources a week, while 2,000 pounds of waste are discarded to support that consumption”(45). It is highly unlikely that people are...
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...Emmett Donnelley-Power Research Proposal Williams Period 3 11/29/14 Advertising in the 1920’s Research Question: To what extent did advertising and consumerism in the 1920’s benefit the United States economically? Many historians studying the 1920’s in America, specifically the economy in this time period, disagree on two key points. The first important debate is over the level of prosperity in the 1920’s. The second is over the effect of advertising on this level of prosperity . The 1920’s have earned for themselves a large number of often contradictory nicknames. “These years have been dubbed everything from ‘The Roaring Twenties’ and ‘The Era of Wonderful Nonsense’ to ‘The Decade of the Dollar’ and ‘The Period of the Psyche’ to the ‘Dry...
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...Modern Times and Marxist Criticism Marxist Criticism revolves around the theories and ideologies of Karl Marx. While his work is still commonly studied and referenced, I have found some of his principles to be outdated. Marx lived from 1818 until 1883, so, his principles are based on what was going on during his lifetime. In nearly two hundred years, some ideologies of Marxist Criticism don’t fit the social norm as well as they did in his time. Ideologies such as religion, consumerism, and rugged individualism have grown with society and don’t have the same effect as they once did. In Marxist Criticism you will find one of Marx’s ideologies to be religion. Religion is an ideology that helps to keep the poor satisfied with their lot in life, or at least tolerant of it, as a tranquilizer might do. (Tyson, 59) With religion being a major part of many people’s life in the 1800’s his view on its role in society as the “opiate of the masses” is different now that it is the twenty-first century than it was during the nineteenth century. In centuries prior religion would include the conviction that the poor, if they remain nonviolent, will find their reward in heaven. (Tyson, 59) While that ideology was extremely relevant in Marx’s time, religion today isn’t a requirement, it isn’t expected thus making it outdated. While religion is still widespread, it has become common to not be religious at all. A growing number of people are identifying as Atheist or Agnostic, choosing not...
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...PEPSI’S CONCEPT OF ETHICAL CONSUMERISM By (name) Course: Tutor: Institution: Location of Institution: Date: Executive summary The ethical consumerism market has shifted significantly over the past few decades just as the attitudes regarding the environment and ethical sourcing of products. Unlike in the past decades when consumers were generally ignorant of the information regarding what was being offered to them, today the consumers are more individualistic and informed. A short opinion survey conducted among a sample of 13 students from GSM London to assess the factors that impact consumer behavior have shown that two-thirds of the respondents lean towards the assessment of a firm’s ethical marketing process before making a decision to buy from such a company. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Introduction 4 An overview and analysis of ethical consumerism 4 Review of Pepsi Co Inc Company 6 Result of the Short Opinion Survey 8 Conclusion 10 Recommendation 10 Reference 11 Appendix 13 Introduction Ethical consumerism is growing in significance influencing customer choices as well as increasing the role played by the social movement in the marketing process (Buechler, 2010, p.13). New unfolding and ethics are pushing customers to participate actively in market participation and also to criticize the market process and retreat from it. This paper will focus on the analysis of factors that influences consumer behavior through an opinion survey conducted among thirteen...
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...Salonga, Karlo 3ca2 Globalization of media products has been considered a figure of cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism takes place when a country dominates others through its media exports, including advertising messages, films, and television and radio programming. America's dominance in the entertainment industries made it difficult for other cultures to produce and distribute their own cultural products. Supporters of American popular culture argue that the universal reputation of American media products promotes a global media system that allows communication to cross national boundaries. American admired culture in addition challenges authority and outmoded traditions. Critics of American culture argue that cultural imperialism prevents the development of native cultures and has a negative impact on teenagers. Teenagers in other nations have rejected their own cultural music and dress. Instead, they want to wear American jeans and listen to American recording artists. Rock groups from other countries will even sing in English rather than use their native tongue. Media corporations are attempting to begin operations in nations around the world, some countries want to protect their domestic media and culture industries. Some nations, including Norway, Denmark, Spain, Mexico, and South Korea, have established government subsidies to preserve their own domestic film industries. The British government proposed a voluntary levy on the revenues from domestic film...
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...Unilever Corporate Crimes Promoting Consumerism Misleading marketing Market domination Procter&Gamble and Unilever reach agreement Pushing the neoliberal agenda and spreading false information Exploiting -relatively cheap- resources in the Third World Promoting unsustainable agriculture Environmental pollution 9. Using consumerism to ‘eradicate’ poverty Taking public space/barring imagination Collaboration with oppressive regimes Hypocritical Health Campaign induced by Self-Interest Excessive Pay Management 1. Promoting consumerism Unilever spends a lot of energy and money on marketing and commercialisation of consumer products all over the world (‘Paint the World Yellow’ – the Lipton marketing campaign which provide everything with the Lipton Logo, from surfboards to Chevrolets—was a tremendous success, according to Unilever. It created a much bigger Lipton Logo awareness amongst consumers.) Since the Northern consumer market is saturated (so not much room left for expansion of market shares) Unilever aims at maximising the processing of food, which means adding value to ‘improve’ products and then charge more for these products. Unilever changes the product only slightly (e.g. strawberry toothpaste), or just changes the visual language in order to sell exactly the same product. Naturally this process involves heavy advertising. Many of the ‘improved’ products are basically useless, and there is no demand for them (the demand is being manufactured by the...
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......Now I know that cultural assumptions, even well-established ones, can be overturned, which is why I am excited about State of the World 2010. It calls for one of the greatest cultural shifts imaginable: from cultures of consumerism to cultures of sustainability. The book goes well beyond standard prescriptions for clean technologies and enlightened policies. It advocates rethinking the foundations of modern consumerism—the practices and values regarded as “natural,” which paradoxically undermine nature and jeopardize human prosperity. Worldwatch has taken on an ambitious agenda in this volume. No generation in history has achieved a cultural transformation as sweeping as the one called for here. The book’s many articles demonstrate that such a shift is possible by reexamining core assumptions of modern life, from how businesses are run and what is taught in classrooms to how weddings are celebrated and the way cities are organized. Readers may not agree with every idea presented here. But it is hard not to be impressed with the book’s boldness: its initial assumption is that wholesale cultural transformation is possible. I believe this is possible after having lived through the cultural transformation of women in Bangladesh. Culture, after all, is for making it easy for people to unleash their potential, not for standing there as a wall to stop them from moving forward. Culture that does not let people grow is a dead culture. Dead culture should be in the museum, not in human...
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...Syllabus HUM/186 Version 4 1 Syllabus College of Humanities HUM/186 Version 4 Media Influences on American Culture Copyright © 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description The course provides an introduction to the most prominent forms of media that influence and impact social, business, political, and popular culture in contemporary America. It explores the unique aspects of each medium as well as interactions across various media that combine to create rich environments for information sharing, entertainment, business, and social interaction in the United States and around the world. Policies Faculty and students will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Lule, J. (2012). Exploring media and culture. Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge, Inc. All electronic materials are available on the student website. Week One: The Formative Influence of Mass Media on American Culture Details ...
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