Since the start of the century, people have been consuming more goods than every before. The social media has encouraged people to consume materials in excess of their basic needs. Much money is spent on goods that will most likely end up in the trash within six months of the purchase date. The luxury and greed has turned basic needs to worldwide obsessions. As a consumer, I consider myself an over spender because most of the time I purchase items that I think I need but in reality I do not.
On a daily basis consumers are being brainwashed into purchasing items that they do not need. Greed has driven their minds into not only financial debt, but also into a unsatisfied state of mind. The social media, especially, targets women. Women are insecure about their appearance and are an easy target to convince to consume. The list of what women by can go on forever, makeup, shoes, clothes, accessories, home goods, etc. I, myself, have been convinced to purchase a lot of the items that I have because of advertisements. It is not easy to ignore them when they are everywhere! They are in magazines, billboards, on television, on the radio, phone applications; it is almost impossible not to see them.
The media uses advertisements and commercials to attract people into their products. They tend to stick with Aristotle’s Appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos. Major companies pay famous celebrities to endorse their products using ethos. People tend to trust their favorite celebrities and like to, in a sense, “impersonate” them. If Mariah Carey endorses a cosmetic company, her fans are most likely going to buy from that brand just because Mariah Carey uses it. They think that if she uses it then it must be a good product. The media uses this mode of persuasion all the time because it works! People are so easily convinced to consume when a well-known person is endorsing the product.
Logos is a logical appeal typically marked by facts, figures, and data. This helps consumers rationalize their decisions through hard data that tells them how much money or time they are saving. In most cases, companies use collected data to convince their audience how many people just like them have bought their product. Insurance companies like Geico and Progressive sell their insurance policies by telling their audience how much money they could save with their company. Some of their commercials say how many people have switched from other companies to their company in hopes of increasing their clientele. Pathos is used to persuade people using emotion. A lot of charity programs use this method to persuade people into donating their money for a cause. St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital often have kids with leukemia or other forms of cancer in their commercials which leads to their audience feeling badly for the poor innocent children having to deal with diseases and eventually donating money to the hospital. Another example of the use of pathos is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, ASPCA. These commercials have depressing background music and show images of abused animals. Any animal lover will quickly donate money when viewing their commercials. All major companies use one or more of these three appeals to convince consumers to spend their money.
Brand names and design logos attract people to consume. People tend to purchase respected brand names over generic labels. They think the generic version is not as good as the original but most of the time they are just as good and are sold for less money. A pair of Hollister jeans can cost up to seventy dollars when a pair of jeans at American Eagle can cost, at the most, forty dollars. They are both a pair of jeans made from the same material and, most of the time, look similar to each other. The only thing that is different is the brand. Hollister is a higher end brand than American Eagle, which is the reason why their jeans are more expensive. The consumer that is paying seventy dollars for their jeans are not just paying for the jeans, they are paying for the brand name that is stitched into their jeans.
This is true for almost all products in the world. Stores like Wal-Mart and Target have their own generic versions of the products that they sell. Wal-Mart as Equate products while Target has Up&Up. These generic brands include products like shampoo, facial cleansers, and beauty products and medications. They are a form for consumers to get the same quality as name brand products for less money.
In this unit, we learned to notice how much people consume and reflect upon ourselves on how we consume. I once considered myself as a moderate consumer and now I wish I were a moderate consumer. I was oblivious of how much I did consume. Looking at my closet through pictures made me realize how many clothes I had and how much of them I really did not need. Sure I like the luxury of having clothes but in a sense it is useless if I only wear them a couple of times. I can think of at least six shirts that I bought over two months ago and have only worn them once. This unit has not only made me see how I have been over consuming but has also made me think of how I can improve as a consumer and shop wisely. If only everyone reflected upon themselves and how much they consumed, we would be living less consumerist world, where no one cared how much stuff they had or how much they spent to pay for it.
