Consumerism

Consumerism: Definition and History

Consumerism is a phenomenon that arose during the Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19th-early 20th century in capitalist economies and is prevalent today. This phenomenon presupposes that consumption (purchasing goods) is essential to economic prosperity and one's well-being.

• The Industrial Revolution was when mechanized production at factories replaced an economic system that depended on artisanal crafts and agriculture. The Industrial Revolution was accompanied by urbanization, as people moved to cities to work at factories, established the working and middle classes, and infrastructural development such as sanitation and railroads. The working class manufactured the products, and the middle class had sufficient income to buy them. This period comprises two waves: the First Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) and the Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914).

Consumerism is part of an economic cycle in a capitalist or a mixed economy:

• Businesses manufacture products;
• Advertising attracts the buyer to the product;
• Buyers work and make sufficient income to purchase goods;
• Buyers' spending allows businesses to produce more products.

Yet consumers are not simply buyers. After all, people purchased goods throughout recorded history.

The term "consumer" is derived from the word "consume," which describes eating, drinking, and entirely using something. There also is a negative connotation correlated with gluttony. Some historians point to the fact that this negative meaning points to using one's income on wants rather than saving in a system that promotes debt and spending.

Next, a well-made product should last for years. Yet how would companies continue making money in overproduction if consumers had already purchased their products? In the 1920s, businesses introduced planned obsolescence. Some define this term as deliberately manufacturing products that are not durable. Others suggest that companies simply manufacture better models that attract the consumer with their innovation and dissatisfaction with an older variant.

By the late 20th century, consumers got used to having a warranty that only lasted a year or two and expecting the product to break after that date. Alternatively, the market introduces a newer model, as with smartphones today.

Fig. 2 - Ford Model T car, souvenir booklet, 1909.

Culture: Consumerism

Consumer culture centered around the desirability of buying first arose in the 19th and developed in the early 20th century. Using store merchandising, advertising, and even film with product placement, popular culture promoted endless consumption linking goods with material and psychological well-being.

This system enabled advertisers to hold significant financial and political power. Consumer culture combined purchasing power with moral standing and, sometimes, even patriotism—the "American dream."

Consumer Advertising

Consumer advertising promotes products using different forms of mass media—from the original print format in the late 19th century to digital counterparts in the 21st. Advertising agencies that design the appropriate promotional strategies for businesses first arose in the latter part of the 19th century.

Fig. 3 - Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment, ca. 1905.

While advertising styles have changed over time, certain aspects endure, including:

• the link between purchasing power, social status, and well-being.
• youthfulness and energy;
• increased leisure time;
• technological advancement.

Advertisers learned early on that appeals to emotion worked better than logic.

Female Consumers

Even though women's roles changed throughout the 20th century, women remained the main shopper in the family.

• In the 19th century, lower-class women worked in agriculture or in factories. However, Victorian middle-class women stayed home, organizing the household and taking care of children. Their status changed during World War I when female labor was needed for the war effort. After the war, some women returned home, while others remained in the public sphere. During the Second World War, women's labor was needed once again. After 1945, some women returned home, as evident in the American 1950s ideal of domesticity. Yet many women continued working. In the following decades, their numbers increased, as did their social representation and workplace rights.

As a result, advertisements often targeted female consumers and reflected their changing roles. Until the middle of the 20th century, advertisers promoted domestic products to women, such as cleaning supplies and appliances. As women spent less time at home after 1945 and more time in the workplace, advertisers lost themselves. Their solution was to create a beauty, skincare, and weight-loss market. Some feminist authors, such as Naomi Wolf, argue that this market used psychological tricks to manipulate women into thinking that they are never good enough to keep them buying:

Fig. 4 - Camay skincare ad, 1953.

Depictions of Consumers in Advertising

In the 20th century, product advertisers depicted consumers in print, radio, and television advertising in different ways, including:

• attaining social status (e.g., middle class) by buying a particular product;
• irrational, ignorant consumers that need the product to solve their problems;
• savvy consumers that already know how a particular brand is superior.

Problem? Solution!

An essential aspect of advertising is to generate the feeling of desire in the consumer for a product regardless of its necessity. One way to do so is to create a problem where there was none before and then offer the product as a solution.

Consumerism: Pros and Cons

In a capitalist economy, consumerism has both benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits

• providing necessary products to the consumer;
• technological advancement and innovation;
• the purchasing power of the consumer benefits the economy;

Drawbacks

• consumerism pushes some people to go into debt rather than save;
• the unhealthy link between unnecessary material possessions and psychological well-being;
• planned obsolescence and flimsy products.

American Consumerism

The U.S. has been one of the driving forces behind consumerism. On the one hand, Americans produced many innovative, accessible products: from cars in the early 20th century to smartphones in the early 21st. On the other hand, this consumerist ideology has negatively impacted the U.S. and the world.

American Consumerism & Capitalism

Even though consumerism benefits the economy, it also depends on capitalism's boom-and-bust cycle. The latter means that economies expand and contract repeatedly.

Fig. 5 - A queue of people in Louisville, KY, waits for aid during the 1937 Ohio River flood next to a billboard that reads "World's Highest Standard of Living." Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.

Moral Obligations of the American Consumer

Historically, American consumerism displayed a connection to morality. In the early 20th century, advertisers marketed many products as the correct choice for one's family. In contrast, refusing to buy such products was seen as the equivalent of being morally wrong.

Buying products was, therefore, linked to one's moral standing.

Fig. 6 - Kuppenheimer advetisement, 1921.

Advertisers portrayed buying American-made goods, even war bonds, as a citizen's patriotic duty during wars.

Fig. 7 - “My daddy bought me a government bond of the Third Liberty Loan--Did yours?”, 1917.

The Emergence of Paying in Installments

In the 1920s, buying on credit became a common way to pay for almost any good or service. This new drive to purchase the latest and best products encouraged people to make payments on purchases to obtain new items quickly. Considering large purchases in payments instead of a hefty one-time fee encouraged larger purchases in parts with interest. Even small-ticket items like irons were part of this scheme. Paying for items in installments gradually encouraged some consumers to amass debt and to live beyond their means.

Ethical Consumerism

Ethical consumerism focuses on buying responsibly based on one's values. Sometimes, this strategy involves activism on "dollar voting"—supporting or excluding certain companies with one's purchases. This ideology centers on the power of money and the ability to impact political changes or events through purchasing.