COP Lecture Series: Consumerism

Persuasion, society, brand and culture.

Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

• psychoanalysis.
• hidden primitive sexual desires/forces and animal instincts which need controlling,
  - otherwise civilised society does not work.
  - repressed desires.
• Freud's model of personality structure,
  - unconscious and conscious mind.
  - id, ego and superego.

Edward Bernays (1891 - 1995)

• press agent, employed by public information in WW1 (propaganda).
• birth of public relations (PR).
• based on ideas of Freud (his uncle).
• 1929 Easter day parade
  - hired actresses to walk down parade and light up cigarettes at symbolic points (PR stunt).
  - "Torches of Freedom".

1924

• product placement/celebrity endorsements.
• use of pseudo-scientific reports.
  - attempts to attach desirable qualities to products not often considered desirable.

Fordism

• Henry Ford (1863 - 1947).
• making through production lines,
  - speed of production/mass production.
• crisis of over-production and under-consumption?
• a society based on needs to one based on desires.

1957

• marketing hidden needs (8 tactics from 'The Hidden Persuaders', Vance Packard):
  - selling emotional security.
  - selling reassurance of worth.
  - selling ego-gratification.
  - selling creative outlets.
  - selling love objects.
  - selling sense of power.
  - selling sense of roots.
  - selling immortality.

1920

• 'Manufacturing Consent', Walter Lippmann.
• a new elite needed.
• October 24, 1929
  - 'Black Tuesday'.
  - The Great Depression.

Roosevelt and the 'New Deal' (1933 - 1936)

• welfare state.
• regulated markets, etc.
• New York World's Fair (1940)
  - advertising consumerism.
  - Bernays, propaganda ('democracity').
  - beliefs in freedom, etc.

Conclusion

• consumerism is an ideological project.
• we believe that through consumption our desires can be met.
• The Consumer Self.
• the legacy of Bernays/PR can be felt in all aspects of 21st Century society.
• conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue today.
• to what extent are our lives 'free' under the Western consumerist system?

OUGD401 - Study Task 05 - Visual Examples

- identify and analyse relevant and related visual examples.

- 4 x relevant graphic design works and explain how each will help inform your design treatment.

- universal building sets.
- use of LEGO blocks to create imagery - combine classic Lego construction sets with the recent Lego Friends sets which have been marketed specifically towards girls which eliminates the idea of Lego as a universal building set and reinforcing gender stereotypes within children's toys - show how both can still be universal.
- use to show potential negative impacts on children's development when limited in play and how this can affect their ideas of occupation and education.

- statistics from research into the impacts of gendered toys on children's attitudes and beliefs.
- use imagery of children's toys (gendered and not) to produce charts that show this research and statistics, e.g. LEGO blocks to form a bar graph or use of illustrated children's toys and categorise into pie chart.
- aim to shock parents into realising the effects gendered children's toys and products are having on them - change their attitudes and consumer buying habits - engage them by using relatable and well-known products/imagery.

- campaign by Brain Candy Toys - mission to keep kids thinking - takes classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes and imagines what they would be like if they were told using maths equations instead of words.
- how to engage children with the advertisements - the use of universal, well-known children's toy(s) so that young children engage with the advertisements along with their parents and think about what they play with and how they play - shattering their 'learnt' gender stereotypes and attitudes towards play, education and occupation, etc that could potentially impact on them later in life.

- "organising merchandise by gender acts as a barrier that prevents children from exploring a wide array of toys and activities available to them - "because gender segmenting toys interferes with a child's own creative expression".
- use this piece of research as another potential part of the imagery for an advertising campaign - focus on a child's creative expression and individual personality to suggest they are free to choose what they play with and what they wear, etc, opposing the idea of gendered products.
- use of neutral colours, such as yellow and green, rather than the stereotyped pink and blue.

OUGD401 - Study Task 05 - Target Audience Research

GEOGRAPHIC
Geographic segmentation is when a business divides its market on the basis of geography. You can geographically segment a marker by area, such as cities, counties, regions, countries and international regions. You can also break a market down into rural, suburban and urban areas. A geographic target market can be consumers in a city, state or country.

DEMOGRAPHIC
Demographic segmentation means identifying markets based on several shared traits, including age, race, gender, marital status, income, education and occupation. This is also known as a socioeconomic target market.

- parents to young children (20-50).
- young children (0-12).
- infant and primary education level.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC
Psychographic segmentation involves dividing your market into segments based upon different personality traits, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles of consumers. A psychographic target market would be a market that has these similar attitudes.

- consumers who may not be aware of the restricted choices they are offered, for instance in the 'girls' section or 'boys' section or those who feel uncomfortable buying toys labelled or marketed as for one gender and handing it to the other.
- children who have grown-up with clear stereotyped attitudes and ideas about what is acceptable for boys and girls.

OUGD401 - Study Task 05 - Contextual Research

- 4 x relevant areas of contextual research/information that will inform your design strategy.
- at least one area must be related to your chosen cop theme.

"LEGOs were 'Universal Building Sets' and that's exactly what they were...for boys and girls. Toys are supposed to foster creativity. But nowadays, it seems that a lot more toys already have messages built into them before a child even opens the pink or blue package. In 1981, LEGOs were simple and gender-neutral, and the creativity of the child produced the message. In 2014, it's the reverse: the toy delivers a message to the child, and this message is weirdly about gender".

- the introduction of toys aimed specifically at boys or girls, e.g. LEGO Friends sets. LEGO was founded in 1932 and produced as a 'universal building set' however the recent introduction of gender specific LEGO sets limits children in what they can build and focuses on what they think girls are more interested in, such as makeup and fashion, and boys, construction.

- links to society - research shows that by primary age children have a clear idea about the jobs that are seen as suitable for boys and girls due to stereotypes seen in children's toys and marketing.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/15378-little-girl-from-1981-gender-neutral-lego-ad-tells-the-story-in-her-own-words

"The children's toys section in the basement categories products by gender and displays signs saying 'girls toys' and 'boys toys' above the shelves. This perpetuates gender stereotypes and subtly but powerfully shapes the thinking of children (and their parents), constraining their minds and stifling their full potential. It discourages boys from playing with dolls, and girls from playing with LEGO".

- links to consumer society - what may be driving profit margins is limiting childrens' choice and experiences.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chi-onwurah/let-toys-be-toys-gender-marketing_b_4728423.html

"The impact of sex-specific toy choice has implications for children's learning and attitudes far beyond the playground. Play with masculine toys is associated with large motor development and spatial skills and play with feminine toys is associated with fine motor development, language development and social skills".

- negative impacts associated with gender-specific toys - limits development in social, fine motor, spacial and perseverance skills - "children may then extend this perspective from toys and clothes into future roles, occupations and characteristics" - it was found in 2008 by a team of researchers that children with gender-stereotyped decorations in their bedrooms also held more stereotypical attitudes towards boys and girls.

- organising merchandise by gender acts as a barrier that prevents children from exploring a wide array of toys and activities available to them - "because gender segmenting toys interferes with a child's own creative expression".

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/08/12/how-gender-specific-toys-can-negatively-impact-a-childs-development/

"How toys are labelled and displayed affects consumers' buying habits. Many people feel uncomfortable buying a boy a pink toy, or a girl a toy labelled as 'for boys'".

- links to consumer society - companies use this idea to drive profit - means consumers are almost pressured into buying two different sets of toys for a boy and a girl as they feel uncomfortable buying a product labelled for a specific gender, e.g. seen as not acceptable to hand down a pink bike to a boy.

"The stereotypes we see in toy marketing connect with the inequalities we see in adult life. By late primary age, research shows that children already have very clear ideas about the jobs that are suitable for boys and girls".

- links to society and gender - stereotyped attitudes towards children's toys and marketing can be harmful, e.g. themes of beauty directed at young girls puts an emphasis on their appearance/themes of action and violence feeds low expectations in more sensitive and creative boys, which could potentially undermine their performance at school.

- links to Jansson-Boyd, Consumer Psychology - "many studies have found that both women and men do not believe that their current body form is attractive. Research has repeatedly found that physically attractive individuals are perceived by most to be socially more desirable then those that are perceived as being unattractive, something that is likely to have been reinforced by consumer societies" - reinforced at a young age due to stereotyped children's toys.

http://lettoysbetoys.org.uk/why-it-matters/