Frances Lappe's Misconceptions

In his 1982 article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” Jib Fowles informs readers of various psychological human needs, defined as appeals. These appeals are used in advertising, to persuade consumers to purchase a product. Due to the prevalence of advertisements in today’s society, consumers have learned to block out advertisements. By using any of the fifteen appeals such as the need for sex, or the need for affiliation, companies can get into consumers’ minds, with hopes of selling their products. In other words, by appealing to consumers desires, the chance of marketing success

Consumerism leads to self-gratification and the loss of life’s important values such as friendship, love and religion; this is an ever-growing issue that manipulates and deceives society and has done so since the beginning of the technological age.

Consumer culture today is thriving – but not necessarily in a good way. As consumer culture thrives, we have desires for products and services. Consumer spending is a major part of a country’s/world’s economy and that makes the economy strong but the aftermath is an unsustainable lifestyle. Although, Wall-E didn’t indicate exactly what caused consumers to destroy the planet and then flee for the sake of human survival, there are many guesses that can be made as to how it happened. One of the major points made in class during week eight was the fact that the world is becoming overpopulated. This major issue can possibly be

The rise in advertisement played a key role in the rise of consumption. Thanks to well-developed advertisement campaigns, America redefined what a necessity is. Advertisers encouraged Americans to actively work towards maintaining a high social standing. “Advertisers made no secret of their intention to promote novelty for its own sake, in the hope that consumers would exchange perfectly serviceable goods for goods that conformed to the latest fashions” (Lasch, 2000). Consumers devoured this advertisement scheme and began to rapidly increase their spending. Many advertisements for common, household products made claim that they could make the normal appear comparable to the high end. For example, Lux, a soap company, ran an ad in 1920 that depicted two women talking - one of the women complemented on the other on the quantity of sweaters she owned, only to find out that it is not a new sweater, but rather her old sweater that Lux soap made it look brand new (Lux)! Men and women alike began to believe

As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial, by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan, is a graphic novel about the state of our environment. They use cartoons and abundant sarcasm to convey the message that the attempts people are making to save the environment are not enough to do any real good. Their message challenges both those of Edward O. Wilson and the University of Connecticut in that Jensen and McMillan’s ideas are much more radical and suggest that the ideas posed by Wilson and UConn, such as the importance of recycling and sustainability efforts, are ineffective at saving the environment. We must resolve the challenges posed by Jensen and McMillan so that all of the ideas put forth in the sources may work together rather than against each other. In order to do this we must accept that some of the ideas given by Jensen and McMillan may be too extreme to do any real good and that the ideas suggested by Wilson and UConn, though slightly ineffective, are nonetheless important steps in saving the environment. Taken alone, none of their ideas will save the environment; instead it is necessary to combine the ideas of Wilson, UConn, and Jensen and McMillan in order to create a more realistic plan to save the planet.

The human population has grown to be a species of consumers. We consume way more than we need too, slowly destroying our environment in the process. In the last thirty years, we have used more than thirty percent of the planet’s natural resources. Eighty percent of the planet’s original forests are now gone. In the United States, almost half of the waterways have become undrinkable. There is more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere today than there has been at any point in time in the last 800,000 years. Margaret Atwood very cleverly shows this consumer culture in her novel, Oryx and Crake. She shows how this consumer culture is bringing us, as well as our planet, to an end. In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, the degradation of the environment

The environment is delicate, just as are the relationships between nations. Cooperation is difficult to achieve and can often cause more harm than good. In the corporate world the individual lives in, it is difficult to find balance between the government's need for money and the basic need for salvaging the environment. If governments across the globe were to embrace the above ideology, there would be major issues. Society is greedy and consumer culture engulfs one’s thoughts. The individual would have to give up much of their freedom in consumption. Corporations and the consumer greatly influence the environment. Differing ideologies often drive one into argument rather than resolution. An activist would argue that consumer culture and North American society’s need for more is driving environmental impact up drastically. The consumer would argue that if the government thought of it as a major issue that they would have already intervened in the actions of corporations,

As a country, Americans love to shop. Whether in malls, grocery stores, on the Internet, or elsewhere, the culture of buying is deeply ingrained in American culture. Fueled largely by advertising and the current credit system, America’s consumer culture is depleting our planet’s finite natural resources and polluting our environment. Consumerism has instilled in Americans an artificial, ongoing, and insatiable desire for mass-produced and marketed products, and the money with which to buy them, with little regard to their actual usefulness or necessity. This constant desire to acquire more possessions is poisoning the planet, as it can never be sated and thus results in the never-ending exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources, and

Throughout the course of history people developed an obsession over the idea of paradise. From their deep fascination with the perfect, humans assumed that a utopia might actually exist and be discovered. Shortly after, people became engrossed in the acquisition of a possible paradise. The question, today, is what cannot be sold to humans, who would do anything in order to acquire. Advertisements play a key role into triggering the imagination and desires of the potential customers. They are intended to retail products, services and even places; but can they sell the paradise? Apparently, yes, and all that is needed is a deep understanding of the viewer in order to produce a persuasive depiction of this heaven. When presenting such a utopia, the advertiser will use different rhetorical and authentic appeals in order to

Today’s society is based a lot on consumption and consumerism. At this point in history, we wouldn’t have much of an economy without it. At the same time, that’s a big problem for many reasons. We destroy the environment in order to feed our need for stuff and things. In order to make the things, in order to use it, in order to throw it away, we destroy, we pollute, we kill. Not only plants and animals, but the humans who have to make the stuff for small wages and in dangerous, hazardous conditions. And we consume in large amounts and throw away in even larger amounts. So clearly, there’s a problem.

Consumerism is damaging to our society, in our North American society consumerism is often portrayed to be a negative aspect of people’s lives. However, one can also argue positive effects that result from consumerism, or emphasize on the negative effects of consumerism and how it can be a constraining force in one’s own life. Consumerism is an idea of an economic policy that the market is shaped by the choice of the consumer and continues to emerge to shape the world’s mass markets. Some of the negative effects of consumerism that many critics may argue and that will be further emphasized on are the overexploitation of consumerism which has lead to economic poverty, and increase

Since advertising must create new demand, it must also continually produce unsatisfied costumers. Those customers are more likely to look for products to fulfill their happiness, even though they do not reach that point. Mander writes that “the goal of all advertising is discontent,…an internal scarcity of contentment.” Advertising plays on our fears, insecurities, and anxieties, always reminding us that our lives could be better only if we buy this or that. The purpose is to make us slaves of commercials, and as slaves, do as they please. This is the reason for its existences,

The economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.

Dave Ramsey, America’s most trusted financial adviser and a radio show host, once said, “We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.” (Ramsey). Ramsey’s quote reflects the state of consumerism that our society is going through. Most of us can easily relate to this quote, let’s be honest most of us have been there done that and then later question our genuine need for whatever we have bought. Regardless, if we feel guilty or not we ought to ask ourselves why and what made this purchase seems so important and necessary at the time. Although this might not come as a surprise to most of us, the answer would be the advertisement industry. In 2016, The United States has spent more than 198 billion U.S dollars on advertising, making America the leader in advertisement in the world (Statista). These ads are designed to force consumers to keep buying things that are unnecessary by sending subliminal messages and applying psychology to trick the consumer into a spending spree. In his short story, “Subliminal Man”, J.G. Ballard uses science fiction approach to illustrate to his readers the preposterous techniques that the advertising industry has been using to boost consumerism. Ballard believes that the consumer’s brain has been tricked into buying against their well, by using technology and applying subliminal technics. Ballard short story questions the effect of consumerism on our moral values, lifestyle, and behavior. Ballard claims that

“Big corporations have succeeded in targeting people’s mood and perception of daily life using advertisement content. And turn to take control of our space and even our mind by providing free contents to the general public in form of advertising.’ (Jhally 1997). Advertising is used by corporations a strong weapon to imperialize people minds when making daily lifestyle choices, ie, people have no absolute control over their daily lives where advertising exist. This paper will highlight the potential motivation for corporation’s interest in targeting people’s moods and vulnerabilities in their advertisement. Sometime I get confused when I think of what will make our lives great, or something that will lead people to full happiness. But at the same time, on the streets, bus stations, schools, hospitals, supermarket, on television, radio, movies and so many places I go, there is turns of pieces of information that is saying ‘do this you we feel different, you will be happier.’ Myself just like any other person who has an inborn drive of achieving happiness, I get locked up by buying piles of shoes, different generation of iPhone, different cars and so many of