Final Post

In my opinion, the consumer culture in the United States is unbelievably out of control. Many people in this country have a bad habit of over-consuming when it comes to anything and everything.  Don’t get me wrong—many people do have control over their spending and maintain very reasonable consumer habits, but the majority of the population does not.

The marketing industry has only worsened this issue by encouraging people to spend more and more on products that not only are unnecessary, but also unhealthy. The beauty industry convinces girls they need to spend hundreds of dollars on “beautifying” products in order to feel adequate—to feel beautiful. Not only do they manipulate the women they are targeting, but they also exploit women in order to sell their products. Usually, women are presented as scandalous beings—anorexic skinny, unrealistically looking beings, that is—thanks to technology. Photoshop is used on models to manipulate girls and even women into believing they are not beautiful in their natural states, compelling insecurities to rise even though no one actually resembles the individuals shown in all of these unavoidable advertisements.

Food marketers encourage people to buy, eat, buy, eat, buy, and eat some more. They utilize sales tactics that almost force people into buying food they do not need. Eight packs of Coke for the price of four. Of course people are going to buy eight packs of Coke now instead of just one. The really messed up part is that advertisers are marketing Coke, which is already unhealthy as it is, but now the average consumer will be buying eight times the amount they were going to originally purchase. The point of describing these two marketing industries is to demonstrate how manipulative they are. No wonder people these days have low self-esteem and obesity issues.

Personally, I can say that marketing has affected me in the most regrettable way possible. I definitely considered myself an over-consumer, but as I grew older, I started realizing that owning tons and tons of unnecessary things is invaluable. I have learned that things do not make life better—experiences do. In recent times, I found myself becoming more conscious of my spending habits. When I am in a store, I ask myself if I really need the thing I am considering for purchase. In most cases—actually, almost all—I don’t need whatever it is. When I was younger, advertisements definitely impacted my desire to consume. For example, if I was exposed to an advertisement in which the model had beautiful long eye lashes, I would want that new mascara because I wanted my eye lashes to look that pretty and long, too. Now, I realize the woman in the advertisements are not only wearing false eyelashes, but have been photoshopped by professionals. And I realized that my eyelashes are wonderful the way they are. Not only that, but I realized my eyelashes are probably longer and fuller than the model’s. As I grow older, and especially after having taken this class, I find myself analyzing commercials and advertisements, finding all of the tricks employed to sell the products.

Overall, I feel that the most significant element of this class was learning about how advertisers are aiming at us—society. I believe this was the most important aspect of the class because when one realizes how he or she is being aimed at, they can learn defense mechanisms for protection. I now know all of the tricks, and I know how to defend myself, too.