Key ASpects of Consumer Culture - Coursework Example

Student Name Tutor Institution Course Date Consumer Culture Introduction Consumer culture represents the trends, beliefs and the behaviors of purchasers or buyers in different parts of the world. The 1960s consumer culture in American is however fundamental because it was a key changing point for the people of America. It was at this point that the American consumers did away with the traditional culture of overproducing and instead embraced the spending culture. This essay gives an overview of the factors that influenced the adoption of the consumer culture as well as the links between the women in the 1960s and the “push button” age women. The social, cultural and political factors that contributed to the rise of Consumer culture in the American household in the 1950’s and 1960’s. According to Featherstone (2010), the intersection of the consumer culture and the Pop art can be properly revealed by the exploration of not just the macroeconomic, corporate aspects of this culture but the personal and microeconomic aspects as well. Further, Featherstone (2010), continues, the rise of the Consumer in America was influenced largely with social, political and cultural factors. By late 1950, consumption was an average middle-class American way of life. Many Americans were by then avid consumers that fully participated in the growth of such systems and at the same time, many works of Pop art addressed the issue of home consumption. 1. Social factors The media was an imperative social instrument that influenced or contributed to the rampant rise of the culture of consumption in the American households. The 1950’s consumers in America were considered patriotic citizens and the media therefore took advantage of that. Product placement hence became extremely huge with Television shows always being placed in houses filled to the brink with every latest consumer goods. The media took advantage of the fact that people had more money to spend with a lot more items to spend the money on. Between 1945 and 1949, Americans reportedly consumed a third of the globally consumed goods and services. Advertisements on the other hand were changing to an absolutely new revolutionary media (Featherstone, 2010). Many companies were, during this period, started to advertise in billboards, broadsides and newspapers which predominantly appealed to the American women who were considered as the American families’ bedrock. The women were targeted because they were the most likely group to utilize the consumer goods (Fiske, 2010). Cultural factors The main social factor that influenced the rise of the culture of consumption was the development of the popular culture. The culture of consumption is hence considering a part of the 1950s popular culture. The popular culture was considered a big wave of socio-cultural change in the US. The old cultures were being done away with while new cultures, like the culture of consumption for instance, were being taken up very first. The pop culture is the entirety of perspectives, images, ideas, attitudes as well as other phenomena that are embedded within the mainstream of a particular culture. The consumption culture in the United States was hence brought on board with the excitement of the emerging popular culture of the country; a feeling that immensely affected almost every section of the society be it the political, economical, social and cultural. The culture of consumers was also changing significantly with or without the influence of the media. In fact, according to Fiske (2010), the media was just complementing an already developing consumption culture of the Americans. The consumption culture of the 60s flourished in an accepting moral and social climate that was majorly centered on a self-fulfilling ethos. This therefore means that inasmuch as the corporations, the mass media and advertisers were tirelessly trying to sell their products to their target, the public, there was already an attitude that was making the Americans develop a culture of consuming. There was already a prevalent attitude that the middle class Americans had that not only allowed them to accept the consumption ideology but facilitated its maturation even further. However, the advertisers took every chance in the exploitation of the attitude in their advertisement campaigns hence expanding and also reinforcing the self-fulfilling ethos. Americans therefore believed that the self-fulfilling was an admirable and necessary goal in a society that was increasingly impersonal and that to participate in the consumption process leads to such self-realization. Political The government of the US took advantage of the emerging popular culture in the country to capitalize on the introduction and sustainability of the culture of consumption (Osterwold, 2003). The people were trained to desire and to want things that were new even when the old had not already been consumed yet. The Americans were initially not addicted to the purchase of things; the people were more focused on saving for whatever things they needed. However, during the rise of popular culture, the people were made to focus on developing new cultures and doing away with the traditional cultures of saving. The Americans were focused on consuming and were gradually doing away with the issue of overproduction; the American middle class was rapidly changing from the needs culture to desires culture. The government was surprised at how much the approach worked perfectly. The government begun to make tremendous profits because people were more willing to spend monies than they were saving. When citizens are more willing to spend their monies regardless of whether the old commodities were still there or not, it automatically means that the industries, which are mostly owned by the government, were making major profits (Shuker, 2016). 2. The links between the “push button age” and the changing role of women in America in the 1960’s The link between the “push button age” woman and the 1960s American woman is major because the culture of consuming in both times is related. The women in the 1960s had a consumer culture that was deviating from the traditional ways of doing things; a trend which has been embraced to date by the “push button age” women. As much as there are outstanding differences that are evident between the two types of women, there is a strong link between their consuming culture. With the push-button age, it is once again evident the 1950 era provides a window into the future. The era marked an incredible period of forward-thinking, optimism and progress. This was a time that created the “push-button” age from dishwashers to fridges. Everything in the age becomes “Hydra-drive” or “Cruise-o-matic” or “Quadra-traction as well as more futuristic terms used in describing the daily product features. Women have been playing integral roles in the culture of consumption since the 50s because they were considered to consume or purchase more actively than women. The consumptions behaviors have however changed rapidly from that era to the contemporary “push button” age in the US. The key difference is that during the 20th century, the women bought stuff for their consumption to use in their households for the sake of the family most of the times. However, the “push button” on the other hand is driven by luxurious thinking and is driven with a lot of fantasy and the desire to have posh things. The women from the “push button” generation are reflex buyers and therefore by products from time to time without actual planning for shopping. They have hence developed a consumption culture that is sight driven. They are most likely to purchase things that look good and posh without actually wanting to care about tomorrow. For most of them, tomorrow takes care of itself and they hence live day by day impressing themselves every day. The women in the 1960s were predominantly seen as the bedrock of the families in America and that even explains why they were targeted by advertisers. In the “push button” age however, most women do not have families confined in the same households. The cases of single parenthood and separated families have risen rampantly. This is an indication that advertisers can no longer target the families through the women because they might lose out on other women also. The women of the “push button” age make consuming decisions on their own and their decisions are not influenced by their families most of the times. Whatever they purchase is therefore their personal decision and it is up to them to decide what is good for them or not this is regardless of whether she is adding a product that is similar to what they already had (Littlefield and Ozanne, 2011). In addition time and trends have also changed that have extremely affected the fashion and the type of products and services the women are consuming. In the 60s, women purchased the basic household things without much else to buy. The women from the “push button” generation have everything at their disposal with multiple of options of products and services to be consumed. This has affected the ultimately consumption culture of the new generation consumers. When almost everything is made available it is gets even harder for the “push button” age woman consumer to control her purchasing behave and culture. The affinity to do more shopping is hence significantly increased. Shopping has therefore been transformed from a woman’s functional activity to some kind of leisure. Activities have changed significantly like eating at a restaurant, attending a matinee, or going to a beauty parlor; all indicating how modern women have more to do with her monies as compared to the women in the 1960s. In the 1960s, shopping was done in a commercial, safe realm and semi-public places; an essential consideration for a woman who is concerned about their respectability. The “push button” age women are not really concerned about what the society perceives of them. They try to be as independent as possible. This means that they are not so concerned about the respectability component; instead, they even dress up in the clothing they consider fashionable and modern (Kaplan, 2016). 3. The artwork by Claes Oldenburg, “Falling Shoestring Potatoes” 1965. First, there is poor packing evidently displayed in the image. The packing needed to be made more appealing to prospective consumers. This is an indication that the fast food consumers were not so many because most people still eat from their respective households. The companies hence only sold to the available consumers and did not go an extra mile of attracting new consumers. Secondly, the Shoestring Potatoes is dull and is not very attractive to consumers. Looking at the piece of art, it is first evident that the fast food companies were not as aggressive to convince their consumers as they are contemporarily. Considering the contemporary fast food products, there is a lot that needed to be done to make the falling Shoestring Potatoes more attractive for a potential consumer (Frith and Horne, 2016). Conclusion Summarily, the American popular culture that emerged in the 50s has had a significant impact to the cultural, social, economical as well political aspects of the American society. It is evident that the culture of consumption was largely associated with the women in America and that the culture has a great link with the “push button” age women. Bibliography Featherstone, M., 2010. Body, image and affect in consumer culture. Body & Society, 16(1), pp.193-221. Fiske, J., 2010. Understanding popular culture. Routledge. Frith, S. and Horne, H., 2016. Art into pop (Vol. 2). Routledge. Kaplan, E.A., 2016. Rocking around the clock: Music television, postmodernism, and consumer culture. Routledge. Littlefield, J. and Ozanne, J.L., 2011. Socialization into consumer culture: hunters learning to be men. Consumption Markets & Culture, 14(4), pp.333-360. Osterwold, T., 2003. Pop art. Taschen. Shuker, R., 2016. Understanding popular music culture. Routledge. Read More

The main social factor that influenced the rise of the culture of consumption was the development of popular culture. The culture of consumption is hence considering a part of the 1950s popular culture. Popular culture was considered a big wave of socio-cultural change in the US. The old cultures were being done away with while new cultures, like the culture of consumption, for instance, were being taken up very first. Pop culture is the entirety of perspectives, images, ideas, attitudes as well as other phenomena that are embedded within the mainstream of a particular culture. The consumption culture in the United States was hence brought on board with the excitement of the emerging popular culture of the country; a feeling that immensely affected almost every section of the society be it the political, economic, social, and cultural.

The culture of consumers was also changing significantly with or without the influence of the media. In fact, according to Fiske (2010), the media was just complementing an already developing consumption culture of the Americans. The consumption culture of the 60s flourished in an acceptable moral and social climate that was majorly centered on a self-fulfilling ethos. This, therefore, means that since the corporations, the mass media, and advertisers were tirelessly trying to sell their products to their target, the public, there was already an attitude that was making the Americans develop a culture of consuming. There was already a prevalent attitude that the middle-class Americans had that not only allowed them to accept the consumption ideology but facilitated its maturation even further.  However, the advertisers took every chance in the exploitation of the attitude in their advertisement campaigns hence expanding and also reinforcing the self-fulfilling ethos. Americans, therefore, believed that self-fulfilling was an admirable and necessary goal in a society that was increasingly impersonal and that to participate in the consumption process leads to such self-realization.  

The government of the US took advantage of the emerging popular culture in the country to capitalize on the introduction and sustainability of the culture of consumption (Osterwold, 2003). The people were trained to desire and to want things that were new even when the old had not already been consumed yet. The Americans were initially not addicted to the purchase of things; the people were more focused on saving for whatever things they needed. However, during the rise of popular culture, the people were made to focus on developing new cultures and doing away with the traditional cultures of saving. The Americans were focused on consuming and were gradually doing away with the issue of overproduction; the American middle class was rapidly changing from the needs culture to the desires culture. The government was surprised at how much the approach worked perfectly. The government has begun to make tremendous profits because people were more willing to spend monies than they were saving. When citizens are more willing to spend their monies regardless of whether the old commodities were still there or not, it automatically means that the industries, which are mostly owned by the government, were making major profits (Shuker, 2016).

The link between the “push-button age” woman and the 1960s American woman is major because the culture of consuming in both times is related. The women in the 1960s had a consumer culture that was deviating from the traditional ways of doing things; a trend which has been embraced to date by the “push-button age” women. As much as there are outstanding differences that are evident between the two types of women, there is a strong link between their consuming culture.

With the push-button age, it is once again evident the 1950 era provides a window into the future. The era marked an incredible period of forward-thinking, optimism, and progress. This was a time that created the “push-button” age from dishwashers to fridges. Everything in the age becomes “Hydra-drive” or “Cruise-o-Matic” or “Quadra-traction as well as more futuristic terms used in describing the daily product features.

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