Jacob Lueders

Eng 101-45

2/4/13

Consumer essay

Consumerism is in all of us. As Americans we are rich. Americans make up about 4.5% of the total population. At the same time we make up 30% of the world’s money. As a college student in America, if I graduate and get a job with a minimum of $50,000 dollar yearly salary I will be in the top 2% of the world’s richest people. We look at $50,000 a year and think that we could be doing better. As an American I am a greedy consumer.

I am not the neediest of consumers but at the same time I’m not as frugal as I could be either. Consumerism is a habit as Americans and it is not a habit that will ever be easy for us to break. We are greedy although we don’t see it like that but too often we think about ourselves instead of thinking about others. I want to change my consumer habits to become a “Consumer for Others”.

Consuming for others is a theory of consuming with the purpose of serving others with everything we buy, sell, and trade. This is possible on every level on consumerism from the wants to the needs; we can look at everything we do and come up with a way to make it better. This world is dependent on the people within it. And the people within it are dependent on each other. If we attempt to consume a few ways that are different from normal in order to make life easier for one another the world could run a lot smoother. Now I am no expert, nor will I ever claim to be but here are some thoughts that I know could change the world if everyone would follow them.

First I will start with the basics. We consume many things every day. Items such as the obvious like food and drinks are commonly wasted. As we throw away food like it means nothing, over 13% of the world was deemed starving in 2012. If we were less gluttonous and ate only what we needed and not what “filled” us up or “stuffed” our stomachs we could save enough food to feed millions of starving people around the world including those here in America. The idea here is to start small and stet a base; a base to build off of and grow into habits. This is the first step; starting with the little everyday things.

Next we need to look at our everyday lives. I shower every day and brush my teeth twice a day. Just by doing this there is a lot of water I could be saving which is the obvious part but at the same time I need to look at what goes into the shower. When I shower I wash my hair, condition my hair and wash my face. Before college I also used body wash but by using the suds from my hair and using those to wash my body I am able to save that amount of money and resources.

I can also look at any other every day item that everyone uses such as clothing. Clothing is something we all use each and every day but it isn’t just the clothing that we can be wasting. I know personally, I have some t-shirts in my closet that I have not worn since I have been in school. So why have I not donated them? I have no clue. It could be anything from too much work to the fact that I have no clue where to donate them to. It’s not just the shirts that I am wasting though. I’m wasting closet space and I am also wasting fabric softener and laundry detergent every time one of my unworn shirts falls into my dirty clothes. Now it may not seem like a lot but everything accumulates. That’s extra load of laundry could only be that little bit at first but then it adds to the water too and we can start saving more and more there as well. Now our pennies are turning into dollars and our dollars into more and more money. Now this process can be slow at the start. Looking at the first few examples of food, body wash, laundry detergent and water bills, that I would be saving, it could only saves me pennies or maybe a dollar at the beginning but pennies and dollars add up. If we start adding these up and then start adding in some bigger luxuries we could begin to start doing more good than we would have ever imagined. Now let’s start to look at some bigger things.

If we begin to start sharing cars through services such as zimride or zipcar we don’t have to buy a car. Let’s say we would have bought a new car for $10000. Now we have that $10000 to reinvest somewhere else. We start looking around for other ways to save. An obvious monthly bill is our electric bill. Everyone has one whether or not you pay it. Electric bills can be over $100 a month. Well with the $10000 we saved from not buying the car we can invest into a solar panel system for our house which can start at $4000. Now we start saving nearly $100 a month and begin receiving that money back to while at the same time saving the resource of energy.

In the world today, pennies and dollars can make a difference. To us pennies are seemingly worthless but the saying goes, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Consumerism is a habit but it is not unbreakable. Consumerism is the greedy way to live; a way to fill the gluttonous need of our society. We cannot continue to live like this and expect the world to ever be peaceful or equal. We need to fix our problems to put an end to this craze. It starts with one person and will grow to the whole world. This is a way we can all make a difference, in our own lives and the lives of others.

We all know what this is portraying. Why is it that this is so common in society? I am diving more in depth to show us just why the old spice man is not just another guy but rather an icon in society. In just 5 steps I will deconstruct the ad of the old spice man.

1. What is the main purpose/agenda?

While this photo can be seen as seductive, I do not believe that was the authors main purpose. The author is trying to show that old spice can make you attractive. Although there is many ways to do this other than giving an attractive guy there product, old spice also wanted something they could work with. They had a vision for the future of there product and what they could do with the product line that they had. By using this guy they have been able to do a variety of commercials based on the attractiveness of there man and the broad scope of ability.

2. Who is the intended audience?

Now if you took the old spice out of their hands I would say that both of these ads would be intended for a female group based upon looks. But considering that they have a product used only by males in their hands, it must be a male focused ad. This is because old spice wants you to think that by using their product you will become smell good enough to be seen this attractive by ladies. Now we know that this is likely not the case but old spice uses the humor to make people laugh which also makes them like and enjoy the product more.

3. What role(s) should the viewer take?

In this ad the viewer is the purchaser. As the buyer in the market the viewer looks at multiple ads and decides which product he or she uses. Different products have different marketing schemes. In this ad the viewer is supposed to be drawn in by the looks and appeal of the man and convinced to buy because of the humor and “effectiveness” of the product.

4. How does this picture appeal to the viewer’s interests, values, and beliefs?

The interested viewers are typically the newest members to the market. In the market for deodorant the would be pre-teenish males for old spice. This is the market for humor. Males and especially young males want to be attractive but at the same time enjoy a laugh. This ad is the best of both. It appeals to women (like they hope they will be able to) while at the same time making a joke out of what it will be able to make you do. Old spice commercials work because they appeal to such a variety yet focus on their main target audience.

5. How does the viewers needs affect the style of the ad?

The viewers are looking for a hygiene product that will clean them up and make them smell good. Old spice portrays this in their ad by showing a clean cut, sharping looking man holding their product. Now would this ad be as effective if they had a scraggly looking mountain man do it? No because he wouldn’t have that same clean cut appearance as this man has in the ad. The viewer influences every part of the process, all the way down to why they made it in the first place and why they continue using humor and sex appeal. It has been working and viewers enjoy it, so why fix something that’s not broken? This is why the ad’s have not changed for years.

In conclusion, Old spice is a quality product that uses humor and sex appeal to draw in a variety of viewers. They focus their ads on their target market while allowing anyone to connect with the overall theme. Their marketing scheme has been working for years and I don’t see this changing anytime in the near future.

 

The old spice advertisements appeal to buyers through comedy. Old spice commercials are directed at women even though their target market is males. They act like men who buy old spice will  be more attractive to women. For many companies it would be hard to pull off the funny and reverse psychology advertising scheme but old spice found the recipe for success in this department. I like the commitment to success that old spice has put into these commercials as they have become a trademark for their business. It is not always easy to stay with a very criticized scheme but their commitment has led to great success. I am a big fan of old spice products and appreciate not old their advertising but their product quality as well.

My weakness is shoes and as a guy, many are surprised by that. It is very hard for me to go into a nike store or an adidas outlet and not leave with at least one pair of shoes. I’m an impulse consumer. If I want it and its either cheap or on sale I buy it even if the sale is still out of my price range. If I had to change my spending habits it would be to shop around more. Not buy what I wanted right away and only to buy what I need rather than what I want. This would allow me to have more freedoms and not be as tight while here in college.