Preview

American Consumer Culture

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
496 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
American Consumer Culture
I believe that consumer culture has had a negative effect on society. I believe this for many reasons, one of them being that Americans are, in a way, brainwashed into believing that we "need" something, or they have to look a certain way to fit in. advertising companies don't just target adults, they also purposely target young children. They do this because they know that children's brains are not fully developed and are very easily tricked into thinking that they need a certain toy or game to be cool and have friends.
The main idea that Americans are brainwashed into thinking is, "you have needs and you won't be fulfilled until you buy the right product to fill those needs." There are many problems with this message. One of them is that

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Without even noticing, consumers can be. Majority of the people are already apart of consumer culture. Producers entwine consumers in their webs of persuasion; they are already cult-like members. Kalle Lasn is a founder and journalist who wrote “The Cult you’re in” a chapter from Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge- and Why We Must.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Consumer Behavior

    • 2292 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In the following text I’m going to target the topic Influencing Oil and Petrol Consumption.…

    • 2292 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Consumer Culture in America: yesterday it was limited, today we can’t get enough of it, stay tuned for what happens tomorrow.…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I could not help but to think that the purpose of a shopping mall was for everyone to have one convenient place to buy anything they desired. But, the viewpoints expressed though "Community through Exclusion and Illusion" by George Lewis and "Shopping for American Culture," by James J. Farrell, have led me to believe that the shopping mall also serves as a community center. Another article which captured my attention was Ira Zepp's, "The Shopping Mall as Sacred Place." They each express their ideas of how the shopping mall is not just a place to shop due to it's constantly availability, which has created an ideal environment for social interaction for people of all ages. Farrell…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Consumerism In America

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    We have different morals and values and just a different way of living life. On average, most Americans spend three to four times more hours shopping than our European counterparts. This is important because it shows how much more we consume and how much more we value consuming than everyone else. This also proves that we could definitely make a difference if we consumed less. Another fact is that the average house size in America has doubled since the 1970’s. This shows that although people once lived fine with less space, Americans now want larger homes with more space to put all the stuff they…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marketing American Culture

    • 1188 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The average adult in the United States will look at the mirror and think that they have their life in control and do not feel the need to do anything about it. The average depressed adult may look and see a sad reflection, and upon seeing this they will seek out help, be it a doctor or a close friend. This is just an example of what the average American would do if they were sad, because in different cultures, people see depression differently because of various definitions of the condition itself. Depression in the United States is becoming as common as the cold, but only because that’s the way depression treatment is marketed. Marketing itself means the methods by which products are advertised and sold, and it is not restricted for just consumer use. In Jean Twenge’s essay “An Army of One: Me”, Twenge explores the increase in self-esteem and narcissism across the country, and also mentions the use of a new self-esteem education as a marketing technique for feeling good. In addition, Ethan Watters’s essay “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” discusses the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing strategies by better understanding how the Japanese perceive depression and adjusting their advertisements to better fit Japanese society. They were able to adjust their advertisements while also keeping the Japanese in mind, which commonly happens in American advertising, and therefore changes the way people think about certain issues. Thinking the same way everyone else does is the exact way that people are trapped in cultural norms by marketing and the only way out of the trap is by re-evaluating the image that mass marketing has created.…

    • 1188 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fast Food Culture

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages

    America has been encountering many different types of cultures since it was first founded. These distinct types of cultures lead to the development of various types of food options. However, fast food productions stood out to be the top meal choice. The reason for this expansion of encounters with fast food has to deal with the American desire to gain more material wealth and become more prosperous. Americans expanded their encounters with fast foods by means of franchising, advertising, and processing of foods to help them acquire the wealth that they desire.…

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The study of culture is very important to our society, as we have been studying our past and identities for as long as we can recall. Studying our cultures allows us to understand each other as a people, so we can comprehend what we have done, and possibly, what we may do. As we study American popular culture, we see something that began as almost nothing, to a group of patterns that has captured the minds of not only the American people themselves, but the whole world, as well.…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many advertisements being held by the media and television commercials that affect the American culture. They do not just affect the adults but the children as well for instants, this week my children and I were watching the Disney channel and we saw a commercial of Chucky Cheese and right away my children say they want to go there, so to satisfy my children now I want to take them there so they could enjoy themselves and now I am going to have to spend money that I was not planning on and it might not even be that exciting to them as it was shown on TV.…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Rather than unreflexively adopting a lifestyle, through tradition or habit, the new heroes of consumer culture make lifestyle a life project and display their individuality and sense of style in the particularity of the assemblage of goods, clothes, practices, experiences, appearance and bodily dispositions they design together into a lifestyle.” Pg 35.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Materialism In America

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the Great Depression, James Adams coined the phrase, “American Dream” and explained “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth” (King, 610). For a lot of people, the “American Dream” is connected to becoming wealthy and the ability to achieve everything if one only works hard enough from it (Rag to Riches). For others, it is much more than materialism; it is simply the dream of living a simple, happy and fulfilling life that include faith and equality. The American Dream is also about liberty and America being the country of unlimited opportunities. With the economic powerhouse…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Modern American Culture

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Vampires originally arose when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was expanding in the eighteenth century. They came from Slavic folklore to help with anxiety. Vampires change throughout cultures, but have been used in many top-selling or top-viewed books, movies, and television shows. (Bradshaw, Lindsay) The authors and directors portray these vampires very differently. Have you ever thought about which belief is correct?…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    consumer behavior

    • 517 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. A marketer of health food is attempting to segment its market on the basis of Australia consumers’ self image. Describe the four types of consumer self-image and discuss which one would be most effective?…

    • 517 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    American Culture

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages

    American culture is unlike any other in the world. There are many things that make our culture so unique and diverse. From historic events to the very way the United States was started, American culture has changed many times throughout its existence, and it keeps changing every day. One of the reasons why our culture is so unique is that it has been influenced by every single other culture in our planet. The United States is one of the most diverse countries in history. From its start, America has attracted people from all parts of the globe. People that have brought different customs and culture with them to this country, and this led to American culture being a mix of all others that have affected it throughout its history.…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Healthy Eating in School

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In America people are bombarded by an I.S.A. that encourages us to be consumers and…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays