Many Americans love shopping, especially during the holidays, with its captivating discounts and sales, which lead to uncontrollable splurges on irrelevant things. According to Quindlen, this is an example of America’s crazed consumerism and it is absolutely absurd. In her article, “Honestly, You Shouldn’t Have”, she states that there is currently an assumption that purchasing American merchandises symbolize an act of patriotism and at the same time, build a strong economy. She also states that we, as Americans, need to acknowledge important spiritual values such as friends and family rather than material goods.
In the 1970s, the average American was exposed to around 500 ads per day, whereas now we see about 5,000. These numbers continue to rise as technology advances, giving advertisers simpler ways to deliver ads to a specific audience. Advertising is a form of communication that aims to persuade an audience to purchase products. Producers use a variety of techniques to create ads that are engaging, memorable, and effective. These techniques can range from emotions to logic, and a variety of others unnamed.
Andrew Leonard gives a clear stance on his argument "Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization". When we look at the article the reader can infer that Leonard is against "Black Friday" and he makes his point clear when he says "I find the notion that we should "occupy Black Friday" and without our consumer dollars as a way of hitting back at the 1 percent just nutty. "(Leonard). Leonard is not arguing that employees should be home with their families instead of working on "Black Friday" but rather arguing that "there is a point where healthy consumerism becomes out of control marketing driven fetishism" (Leonard).
Times. “Our guests have expressed that they would prefer to kick off their holiday shopping by heading out after their holiday celebrations rather than getting up in the middle of the night.” Showing that it truly is consumerism over civilization in this day and age. Through it all Leonard shows that one take on Black Friday is a serious one. With all the videos and ads for psycho shoppers and the stories of employees not wanting to work on their holiday.
Summary of Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization The author Andrew Leonard states that the Black Friday insanity is not acceptable within the society. It is getting too out of hand and is leading to people being trampled to death over a good deal on something. Leonards information comes from Target employees who feel that it is unnecessary to have “Black Friday” sales on Thanksgiving, they feel like they should be able to spend Thanksgiving at home with their loved ones. The true meaning of Thanksgiving has been lowered, because people are too worried about getting a good deal rather than spending time with family and showing the true meaning.
There were numerous ideas discussed in these videos; and they tie into what society is today. The ideas covered in the documentary were covered in films we had recently watched. Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders and Generation Like all presented the theme of how advertisers use subliminal
Black Friday shopping has evolved into an unusual sort of spectacle that grows excessively with every coming year. As a country, we go from a prideful national holiday, Thanksgiving, where we give thanks for all of the things that we have in our lives, to fighting tooth and nail a few hours later against other people for the things that we do not have. According to the Accounting Degree Review and its article, “Black Friday By The Numbers” (2015) in recent years, “89 million shoppers braved the crowds on Black Friday 2012, up from 86 million in 2011. 247 million shoppers over the weekend 2012, up from 226 million in 2011” (p.1) A lot of people are obsessive and forward with their efforts to own the next best thing, but yet fall silent to giving their support for pivotal social movements occurring at the same time as the largest shopping event of the year.
By taking a 24 hour break from shopping, it might help people realize that their things aren’t the most important part of their life. This is the exact message that BUy Nothing Day is trying to convey. But that’s all it is; a message. Buy Nothing Day isn’t a law, it can’t be enforced that people participate. So although it’s a wonderful message, there’s other ways to spread it that may be more effective than a Buy Nothing
Advertisements have become a core system in American culture. It works like a political system but instead of being controlled by the government, the customers are being controlling by big companies. The main purpose of advertising is to connect to the general public and to inform them about new products or services that the organization is offering. The more money a company is willing to throw into an advertisement, the more powerful that company becomes. Through advertisements, a company can control the society psychologically and emotionally.
To challenge the “Buy Nothing Day” people will question about what will happen to the businesses on the “Buy Nothing Day” who depend on consumers to make a margin of profit to sustain them. However, on this day one hundred percent of the population will not participate. The businesses that the counter to the “Buy Nothing Day” discuss will still have business from those who do not participate in the day. Also the goal of the “Buy Nothing Day” is not necessary to stop everyone from purchasing goods, but moreso concerned with making the effects of consumerism aware to the consumers of our society. Another argument that potentially made against the “Buy Nothing Day” is that what is going to stop people from buying in excess on the days leading up to or after the day itself to get what they think they need.
I find the notion that we should “occupy Black Friday””(Andrew Leonard’s “Black Friday: Consumerism vs. Civilization”). According to Leonard one act that a conscientious consumer could do would be a strike that would result in more layoffs, pay cuts, bankruptcies, and foreclosures. Walmart would take a hit of course, however, so would Walmart employees. NEED CITATION
Every single day we are bombarded with advertisements, and we are sometimes subconscious to it. Advertisements play an eminent role in influencing our culture by moulding the minds of its’ viewers. They grab our attention left, right and centre; leaving us feeling insecure about ourselves wishing that we could look like the size 4 model depicted in the Guess advert. Messages are delivered to us in all sorts of ways through television, radio, magazines, social media and text messages aiming to capture our attention wherever possible. Everywhere we look, we are plagued with images of the latest products, which in essence attract consumers because we as humans are constantly wanting to satisfy our wants and needs because what we have is never
Buy Nothing Day exists to reveal the damaging effects of excessive consumerism by persuading consumers to buy nothing for an entire 24 hour period. The creators of this movement argue that overconsumption of goods is both unethical and bad for the environment. The impractical concept of
Consumer is one who consumes the goods & services product. The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy the Consumer needs and wants. The modern marketing concept makes customers the centre stage of organisation efforts. The focus, within the marketing concepts is to reach target and largest customer’s sets ball rolling for analysing each of the conditions of the target market1. Consumer behaviour can be defined as “the decision making process and physical activity involved in acquiring, evaluating, using and disposing of goods and services”.
Technology brought us machines, computers, cars and aeroplanes. It made the world smaller by providing good communication tools, made it possible to explore the solar system and the universe and proved the significance in human advancement. There is no denying technology is great, but are humans becoming too dependent on technology? Advancements in technology have enabled humans to do things that were unimaginable those days and it has certainly made many tasks easier than they were before. How many of us can go for a week without an internet connection or cell phone?
