Consumer Culture and the Manufacturing of Desire

Marita Strucken, and Lisa Cartwright, state that visual imagery, whether they are artistic or photographic have a finacial value that is attached to it within the market that it is consumed in. Therefore, within the news market, the regular exchange of images 'are bought and sold because of their commercial value in depicting current and historical events'. They imply that through the buying and selling of images, a form of commodity fetishism is evolving through the placement of visual rhetoric within cultural artifacts that cater for 'commodity culture'. Advertising, in particular, is central to this idea of the consumption of cultural artifacts that promote current themes of 'glamour', 'self-image', and 'sel-improvement' as ideals that must be attained to, in order to achieve perfection. Its ideological rhetoric, providing the impetus for the acquisition of a cultural ideology through the depiction of visual imagery of what constitutes an ideal that should be attained. A visualisation of a perfect and harmonious future is the central message of such images that, according to Struken and Cartwright, ideolise the attainment of such lifestyles and promote a message that if you embrace such a lifestyle, then everything you desire will become a reality. Therefore, the visual imagery acts as a metaphor for a perfect future that is only possible, through the collection of products that promote a modernist, 'idealised lifestyle' which is intended for the betterment of individuals.

'This is the world that works by abstraction, a potential place or state of being situated not in the present but in an imagined future with the promise to the consumer of things “you” will have, a lifestyle you can take part in.' (p.189)


They state that advertising agencies are continouly inventing new strategies and methods to keep readers' interested in their products, such brand names employ the services of an 'advertising agency' who are responsible for the 'visual identity' of the company that employs them. These advertising agencies have to come up with new 'tactics' to keep such readers interested in their client's products, it is not the case of just presenting the advertising directly to the consumer, but more overt techniques are employeed to decrease resistance of the imagery, through the use of different mediums, where meaning and interpretation is not restricted to two-dimensial static imagery, but through three-dimensional environments that use a variety of different media to communicate the messages of the advertisemnet. The use of advertising is essential to a consumer society where the distribution of 'wealth' is held by 'individuals and corporations'. Consumer culture they say, is a rather new development where the emergence of choice and new products have allowed the manufacture of mass produced goods to emerge. This is an interesting argument that suggests that an industralisation of consumer products has allowed the advertising agencies to increase business as the mass production of goods increased. This economic change is important, in that through capitalism, consumerism, and methods to tap into consumer culture, through advertising and promotion, has allowed consumerism and brand awareness to increase.


They make an interesting point about how community, family and work roles have changed, as the traditional community sphere began to change and cultural identies became a source of consumerism, where through the buying of goods, people found an identity that they could relate to as the community identity was no longer the only source. Through this 'commodity culture' goods and products are purchased and 'sold' because they have 'cultural meaning' that is realted to identity. However, advertising is not merely about selling images but about the selling of 'lifestyles'. However, advertising, according to Michael Schudson, is a complicated process that involves the use of other processes, with advertising being one of them. The widespread impact of 'commodity culture' was criticised by 'The Frankfurt School' in the '1960s', who were opposed to it because, such obcession with objects could not replace the loss of identity and 'meaningful social interaction'. However, the 'therapeutic' process of consumerism increased as commodities promised an escape from dissatisfied 'lifestyles'. Through glamourisation of images, where an ideal repesentation of lifestyles and body image are portrayed to increase cosumerist behaviour, are 'central to advertising'.
Finally, the emergence of the shopping mall created a source were consumerist demand for products and goods were all allocated in one large unit, which was made up of smaller retail units. The large glass windows, and the use of visual displays to attract shoppers is still used today to celebrate 'consumer culture'. This suggests that postmodern conventions of attracting consumers are very much a part of modern consumer practices in the present. The postmodern architecture may have been replaced by modernity, but the postmodern conventions of attracting consumers is very much a part of modern retail practices where tried and tested methods from the past are employed today.