singley.org > blog archives > The Power of Consumerism 06.28.2007
I've always been a bit obsessed academically interested in consumerism/consumer marketing. I remember in 3rd grade I was selected to participate in a study on new school lunch options. I sat in a small room opposite a woman holding a clipboard while she watched me sample spaghetti casserole, pizza rolls, and mini hot dogs. In addition to feeling psyched that I was getting out of class to eat snacks, I was fascinated with the process. I was going to decide what my friends would eat everyday at noon? The power! The excitement! The disgustingly chunky marinara sauce!
At home, I was one of those annoying kids who drove their parents nuts every Christmas by asking for 1. the impossible-to-find popular toy of the season or 2. something I read about in a Japanese video game magazine that wasn't coming out in the states for a year. My poor mom and dad. I've been told now that my grandparents drove three hours to Wisconsin to get a copy of the boardgame Fireball Island. Before that it was Star Wars figures, then later the original Game Boy, etc.
Then something strange happened when I hit the age when I could, now and again, buy some of the objects of my consumer lust with my hard-earned summer job money: I found myself just fascinated by the consumers and their consumer lust. I didn't actually want a Tickle-Me-Elmo, but the Ticke-Me-Frenzy was captivating. Then there was the Furby, which I actually did buy, but again I was more struck by the abilty of marketers to make people want, no, need this weird, fuzzy robot. How'd they do it? It is truly a quality product? Genius advertising? An uncanny ability to understand current consumer desires? I started to pay a lot more attention to not only what they were selling but how they were selling it.
Then came the backlash. Being surrounded by angsty, idealistic people in college I went through an angsty, idealistic phase. I subscribed to Adbusters magazine. I built a website on culture jamming. For a while I was the #2 hit when you Googled for "Abbie Hoffman." Advertising was manipulative, and we, the innocent consumers, were victims. Wow, college was hilarious.
I toned it down a couple years later. Sadly, this likely had something to do with my having no cash in school and having at least a wee bit after I graduated. But, I do now look at consumer frenzies through a more cynical, or at least more skeptical lense. I also think of trends more in the Freakonomics sense: what is incentiving this whole process, both on the business and consumer side?
Also, having worked in user experience design for the last 5 years, I pay much more attention to how a product's design, feel and intuitiveness factors into both its commercial success and and it's advertising. Businesses have gotten better at this recently, and consumers have become more savvy and more demanding about product design and usability.
No where is this more apparent then in probably the biggest marketing/consumer fiasco I've ever seen: the iPhone. When I first saw the thing in Steve Jobs' hand half a year ago, it was Fireball Island all over again. And then they just kept pushing: incredible design, amazingly easy to use. You never needed it before, and now you had to have it. And their TV ads are masterpieces. They make the product seem utterly easy yet also packed with practical features. "Sure, I can see myself looking for sushi in San Franciso. How would I do that without the iPhone? I both love and hate Apple for what they've managed to do with this product because tomorrow, I will shed all culturejamming cynicism and visit the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue not to buy just yet (I'll wait to be sure the first batch is solid), but instead to experience the magic. This is Pop Consumerism at its finest. It's also a cultural phenomenon and a fascinating look at consumer psychology. And, it's completely insane. I can't wait to be a part of it.