reduce.

the manipulation of desire

Lisa H. Y. Ing
maHKU Editorial Design
2008–2009
 “And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And it’s not my fault, it’s how I’m programmed to function...
...I don’t know what’s right, or what’s real any more
I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel any more
I’m not sure when it will all become clear
Cause I’ve been taken over by The Fear.”

—Lily Allen, The Fear

table of (dis)contents
what was the last thing you bought?

introduction 4
the Consumer Society 6
a Terminology 6
the Unbearable Mass of Media 8
a Connection Through Consumption 11
the Language of Ads and Objects 12
four Types of Object Values 14
how to Manipulate Object Values 16
the Diderot Unity 18
the Self and Consumer Society Today 20
the Power of Seduction 22
not Buying It 24

reduce • 3
4 • reduce

introduction
why do you think people spend too much?

1
New York Times, September In September 2008, I read a New York Times article on a brash new ad
7, 2008, Stuart Elliott,
“Magazines Assert Their campaign.1 The website showed one ad: in it, a young African-American
Power to Sell”. http://www. woman was sitting at her kitchen table, with dozens of Häagen-Dazs ice-
nytimes.com/2008/09/08/
business/media/08adco.html cream cartons stacked up on top of every available surface. The look on
2
Magazine ads are better her face was a sort of bemused distress, as if to ask, “What have I done?”
than TV and web ads at The tagline: Under the Influence of Magazines.
influencing car & packaged
goods purchases, and The structure of the ad was similar to that of Adbusters: a slick,
piqueing interest in particular
brands, websites, and creative advertisement that Kalle Lasn could have made to illustrate an
social networks. Seeing a ad’s power over an unassuming consumer. But it wasn’t Adbusters. Nor
magazine ad made the reader
40% more likely to visit the was it Häagen-Dazs.
advertiser’s website, and
helps drive word of mouth.
The ad was from the Magazine Publishers of America. It was an ad
Word of mouth via the Internet campaign aimed at advertisers, designed by New York’s Toy ad agency,
is 1.5x as effective than it was
during the 1970s. Magazine
showing off the power of ads in magazines in selling product2—using
ads are 2x effective and half Häagen-Dazs as a nod to the ice-cream company’s previous successful
as expensive as TV spots,
radio, and web. Magazine
advertising campaigns.
Ads have power. Figure 1
Publishers of America, Under
It was, as the Chief Creative
the Influence of Magazines
Online Campaign, November Officer of Toy, Ari Merkin described to the New York Times, the
19, 2008. http://www.
morning-after effect: “What did I do last night? It’s done to make the
magazine.org/advertising/
coalition/influence_online_ point that magazines have a powerful influence on people.”3
campaign.aspx
This ad is an exaggeration—but also a shockingly honest look at the
3
NY Times, Elliott 2008
interaction between media,
culture and advertising in the
Fig 1. “Under the Influence of In addition, media and consumer culture
Magazines” campaign consumer society. We live in a
changes the social relationships between
Toy Ad Agency for the society of the spectacle: media,
Magazine Publishers of people.
America, 2008 consumerism and culture are a

5
Taylor, Mark C. and
Saarinen, Esa, Imagologies:
Media Philosophy, 1994
6
Schor, Juliet. The Overspent
American, 1998.
7
Worldwatch Institute, The
State of Consumption
Today. http://www.
worldwatch.org/node/810
8
New York Times, Amy
Schoenfeld and Matthew
Bloch, “The Debt Trap:
The American Way of
Debt.” July 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/
interactive/2008/07/20/
business/20debt-trap.
html#/tab2
9
Bauman, Zygmunt, The
Self in a Consumer Society,
Hedgehog Review, Fall 99.
tangled mass, entwined together. “The spectacle is not a collection Buying feels good; it bolsters the display of one’s unique identity;
of images—rather, it is a social relationship between people that is it is nearly impossible to live in the modern, post-industrial world
mediated by images.”4 without playing a part in the consumer society—but consumer
What kind of social relationship spending is the problem dressed as the solution,
does this ad reveal? Looking at the The graphic designer is both seducer pretending to offer happiness.
ad, I identified with the woman—the and seduced: a shaper and viewer of “This cycle of desire is a compulsion, a must,
consumer seduced into buying too images of desire. for the fully-fledged, mature consumer; yet
much and regretting it afterwards. The that must, that internalized pressure, that
expression on her face resembles a mixture of confusion, doubt, and impossibility of living one’s life in any other way, is seen as the free
shame. As a graphic designer, I identified with the agency and the exercise of one’s will . . .They are the judges, the critics, and the
magazine industry’s need for advertising revenue to survive. And choosers. They can, after all, refuse their allegiance to any one of
the conflict between seducer and seduced broke my heart. the infinite choices on display—except the choice of choosing among
The graphic designer is complicit in the society of the spectacle, them.”9
being a part of creating and mediating images to encourage —Zygmunt Bauman, The Self and the Consumer Society
consumption and the desire for My essay is about tracing the relationship
consumption. Filling desires through Consumer spending does not truly between media and identity through
consumption does not satisfy desire for satisfy desire, but increases it. The choice consumption, and attempting to untangle the
very long. Desire builds on itself — as to not consume is missing. influences of need, want and desire.
Taylor and Saarinen wrote, “Desire does Editorial design speaks the language of
not desire satisfaction. To the contrary, desire desires desire.”5 symbols and connections, of layering images and text into mass
As the ability to sate desire through consumption grows, so does culture. If graphic design can subtly influence people into buying
the desire for consumption. Among affluent American families more things, then graphic design can also influence people to do
making more than $100,000 a year, 27% felt that they could not the opposite. As designers, we can design choices and allow people
afford to buy everything they really needed.6 In comparison, almost to change their environments—to choose to want less, and to enjoy
half the population of Earth lives on less than $750 a year, or $2 a more.
day.7 75% of Americans are in debt.8
What is the end point of all this If design makes people consume more,
desire? Humanity lives in a world of design can make people consume less.
finite resources, straining the Earth’s
environment over the long term to produce the short-term pleasure
of consumption for a small percentage of the world’s population.
reduce • 5
6 • reduce
the Consumer Society
do we consume more than society consumes us?
Bauman, Zygmunt. The
10
Self in a Consumer Society.
11
Bernays, Edward,
Propaganda, 1928
12
Principles of Marketing, 4th
European Edition, Kotler,
Armstrong, Saunders, Wong
(2004)
“To increase their capacity for consumption, consumers must never be left to
rest. They need to be constantly exposed to new temptations to keep them in
the state of perpetual suspicion and steady disaffection.”10
—Zygmunt Bauman, The Self and the Consumer Society
The consumer society is the mechanism of modern culture: a culture
dependent on the inflation and satiation of desire. Western capitalism
is based on a system of increasing growth supported by increasing
consumption, which drives an economy based on individual consumption
and promotes consuming. While
there are fluctuations in the cycle The consumer society runs on desire.
due to upturns and downturns, the
basic assumption of capitalism is that over the long term, fortunes will rise.
Capitalism may not be consumerism, but capitalism is an efficient delivery
model for consumerism, and the two are inextricably linked in the West.
The individual in a consumer society does not produce all of his or
her own goods: instead, that
individual spends time working Capitalism is not always consumerism.
But capitalism and consumerism
for money, which is then used
to purchase goods. Since the strengthen each other.
individual has a choice of what to
consume, the choices of the individual must be directed towards particular
products and in a particular manner that the individual feels that he or she
has made that choice willingly and independently. This competition for
consumers drives a constellation of advertising, marketing and branding.
a Terminology
Needs are states of felt deprivation. 13
Human beings have
various needs: biological needs such as food, reproduction,
shelter, and survival; psychological needs for love, belonging,
individual expression, and success; societal needs that help
connection and cohesion, promoting a group culture and shared
ideals. Needs are basic and universal.
Wants are the expressions of those needs—the particular
form of satisfaction a person desires to fill a need. Wants are
shaped by culture and media, which present experiences (either
direct experiences or a simulated experience) and opportunities
to satisfy these wants. Satisfying a want provides pleasure.
All humans need food and shelter to survive, but each
individual desires a particular type of food and a particular
quality of shelter to feel pleasure. Although they are all meats,
the perceived desirability and tastiness of bacon, sushi and
horsemeat is highly dependent on culture and individual
experience. A college student might be happy with a futon bed
and a hot plate, while a successful business owner might require
a 5-bedroom suburban house with granite countertops and a
stainless steel Viking stove in order to achieve satisfaction.
Desire is a powerful want—a deep attraction to something
and a longing to possess it. Our biological needs are very
narrow, and yet our desires are infinite. The problem is when
needs and desires are combined and mistaken for each other.
When Buddhism says that “Desire is Suffering,” the definition
of desire that brings pain is “craving” or tanha (distinguished
from other types of wants and goals). Desire is suffering
because humans feel needs, and these unfulfilled needs are
painful. But the pleasure of appeasing tanha is also temporary,
and following temporary pleasure traps a person in a cycle of
 “We must shift America from a ‘needs’
to a ‘desires’ culture. People must be
trained to desire —to want new things
feeling needs, pursuing satisfaction, and feeling needs again,
even before the old has been completely
which makes the inevitable pain when the pleasure stops and 13
Brafman, Ori and Brafman, Edward Bernays, the father consumed.”
the need begins again even more painful. Desire can never be Rom, Sway: The Irresistible
Pull of Irrational Behavior, of modern marketing and —Paul Mazer, Lehman Brothers, 1926
satisfied: we always need more and more to feel as if we’re
going somewhere, but a minor success is only a small reward,
2008 PR in America, explained
14
UN Department of that corporate success was not in making products, but making
and a minor loss feels huge.13 Economic and Sustainable
Affairs, Division for consumers.11
Consumption The economic definition of consumption Sustainable Development,
Agenda 21, Chapter 4 Bernays didn’t convince people to buy by convincing them with
is expending money to satisfy desires. There are two primary
strategies to dealing with desire: people with ample resources
15
BBC, A Century of Self, reason—he was shaping culture, manipulating perceived norms,
2002 and tapping into hidden emotional desires. In the 1920s, he used
have the means to sate desire through consumption; while those
poorer must deal with their desires through denial, reducing the the public media of radio, photography, and newspapers to tell
feeling of deprivation. Where these two interact, the desire for people what was desirable
consumption by the rich increases the suffering of the poor. on a mass scale, blending the Bernays linked psychology to marketing
“Although consumption patterns are very high in certain parts fledgling field of psychology and capitalism to democracy.
of the world, the basic consumer needs of a large section of with the new field of
humanity are not being met. This results in excessive demands
marketing.13
and unsustainable lifestyles among the richer segments,
which place immense stress on the environment. The poorer
In addition, Bernays made one other critical link that affects us
segments, meanwhile, are unable to meet food, health care, today—he connected capitalism to democracy. In a world where
shelter and educational needs.”14 the individual has the power over their government via their vote
and over their environment
Materialism Consumption is more than materialism: via their buying power, it is The individual’s choices must be shaped,
materialism centers around valuing objects, while consumption
even more important that with the individual believing that he has
also involves the purchase of services and ideas. These are
the will of the people must made that choice himself.
intangible goods, or less-tangible experiences attached to
products, but they are also bought and consumed. While the
be influenced so that they
term object is used as a convenient shorthand for “object believe both in the power of their choices—and that they have come
of consumption”, trends in marketing and consumption up with their ideas and motivations independently, of their own free
have steadily moved towards selling intangibles (story- and will. To this end, desire and culture must be shaped by media.
experience-based marketing, in particular) as a replacement
or supplement to physical goods. The idea of the object is as
important as the object itself.
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8 • reduce

the Unbearable Mass of Media

how do media and culture shape desire?

16
New York Times, January The manipulation of desire is the machine of advertising, marketing,
15, 2007, Louise Story,
“Anywhere the Eye Can and branding that propels the persistent fantasy of consumer society,
See, It’s Likely to See an and the consumer economy. Viewers are aware that advertising is
Ad”.
meant to sell, but the power of
17
Mutations, Rem Koolhaas:
Harvard Design School mass media is that it sets norms The media machine of advertising
Project on the City,
“Shopping”.
and aspirational desires. Media’s repeats a fantasy of consumption,
Schor, Juliet, The
18 power rests in its ubiquitous desire and anxiety.
Overspent American: Why repetition; in the 5,000 ads16 and
We Want What We Don’t
Need, 1998.
20,000 logos17 that the individual sees but does not necessarily register
per day. It is in the setting of cultural aspirational norms: in television
shows and magazines that show upper- to upper-middle class patterns
of consumption as normal, displaying news reports on new technology
and trends in the same fashion as a shop catalogue and directing
purchases among others.
What this means is that the mechanism for determining normality
is skewed towards the upper end of the scale, and the implication
promotes dissatisfaction with a lesser lifestyle and aspirational
purchasing. Each hour of television watched per week raises the
average spending of a household by $208.18
Truth and Advertising
Fig 2a (top): People make choices by
John Carpenter’s 1988 cult
comparing one thing to another— People make choices and
film, They Live: a commentary
on advertising and the qualities of this pair of shoes understand their environment
consumption.
versus that pair of shoes. We through comparisons.
Fig 2b (bottom):
Times Square, New York, NY
compare objects—and people.
Jose Fuste Raga, Corbis

19
Frank, Robert, Falling
Behind: How Rising
Inequality Harms the Middle
Class, 2007
Turnbull, David;
20
Masons, Tricksters and
Cartographers, 2000.
21
Rushkoff, Douglas.
Frontline, “The Merchants of
Cool”. PBS. 2001.
22
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra
and Simulation, Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan
Press, 1994. (Hyperreality)
23
NY Times Video; Sex,
Lies and Photoshop, Jesse
Epstein, Wet Dreams and
False Images, 2009, http://
video.nytimes.com/video/2009/03/09/
opinion/1194838469575/sex-lies-and-
photoshop.html
Individuals judge their success in society by comparison to the simplification of reality, told through the strengths and limitations
people they can see around them, but in the information age, the of the medium.
yardstick of measurement also includes Douglas Rushkoff defines the link between
People become unable to make accurate
constructed media images. In addition, desire, culture, marketing and media as
comparisons. Even those who avoid
the expectations and norms of other a feedback loop: in the documentary The
media must interact with those who do.
people are also shaped by media, so Merchants of Cool, the process moves from
that even a person avoiding media MTV market research on teenagers to creating a desirable cultural
expectations must interact with those steeped in them.
identity to selling that image wholesale to teenage viewers via a
combination of aspirational media and advertising. When that
People also want to be at least average or better off in comparison
to others. Most people would much rather make $50,000 when identity of party girl and boy, along with the attitudes towards
everyone else was making $25,000 than make $100,000 when sex and consumption, is absorbed by the individual due to the
everyone around them was making $200,000.19 It isn’t the objective normatizing effect of media, the culture in real life shifts. The
buying power, but the comparative status that matters—a problem psychological term for this is social proof: where personal behavior
when the negative effects of advertising and hyperreal media come is modeled on the imitation of what other people are doing, and on
into play. the perception of normal and correct behavior.
What is not shown in media is as
Media defines culture through its The image sold becomes the image reported—
important as what is shown, but the so the created image becomes reality.21
interpretation of events, and by the
links that media draw consciously
absence of information is invisible. The trick with media is that to have power,
and unconsciously. What is shown it must present itself as real and artless, despite
through each media’s portrayals and biases and also, what is not being constructed to produce a consistent version of reality that
shown—helps creates a view of the world that claims to be real, but differs from reality. Jean Baudrillard called this hyperreality.22 The
cannot be. David Turnbull, in speaking of maps, describes maps as persistent image shown in mass media presents everyone just a little
reliant on established concepts of the world and deliberate selection bit better than real. Very beautiful people are made unrealistically
and exclusion of elements to be understandable—and that we are thin and attractive through makeup, lights, and digital editing;
seldom aware of the way in which our the images produced for the mass market are
views of the world have been shaped by Through social proof, the images of carefully constructed.23 Aspirational media—
the hand of the designer and editor. 20 “normal” behavior become actual which are aimed at presenting a desirable
These issues of stereotyping, selecting behavior—because they claim reality. lifestyle—are carefully edited to present a
recognizable and familiar elements, seductive view of reality: a version of perfection
and exclusion of unnecessary elements are seen not only in maps, is presented as attainable and real, and a lack of perfection as failure.
but all other forms of media; each media is an abstraction and If the standards of media involve perfection as normality, and
reduce • 9
10 • reduce

consumption is presented as the only

way to gain this perfected normality,
Media presents perfection as possible
then this creates a tremendous anxiety through consumption, and imperfection
in the average person that can only be as failure.
sated by consumption.24
24
Berger, John. Ways of The flip side of desire is fear. 90% of Americans think that crime This intentional design helps shape choices. When people make
Seeing, 1990
rates are going up, while they’ve actually gone down over the past choices, they ask themselves:
25
Mutations, Sanford Kwinter
20 years.25 What this fact means is that reality is very different from
and Daniela Fabricius, “The 1. What kind of person am I?
American City” people’s perceptions of “reality”. News reports bring an anxious rush
Mutations, Rem Koolhaas: 2. What kind of situation is this?
of terrible events and violent crimes into our homes, but crime has
26

Harvard Design School

not increased. Instead, the number of media companies, fictional 3. What would a person like me do in a situation like this?27
Project on the City,
“Shopping”. violence, and the range and tone of news Media is effective at creating a consumer
Cyert, Richard Michael
reports have increased. However, it’s this The more the perception of reality
27
society because it asks people to define and
and March, James G. A
Behavioral Theory of the misunderstanding that people act on and diverges from reality, the easier it is better themselves through the things they buy,
Firm, 1992.
talk about. Americans buy guns, SUVs, to manipulate consumption. framing the question of identity. In addition,
Bauman, Z. The Self in the
28

Consumer Society, 1994

and homes in gated communities to feel consumer culture designs the environment so
in control of their environment. that consumption is increasingly part of all public activity. Lastly,
In addition, the constructed shopping environment (a media in the combination of these two affects how people buy and make
itself, with its own research studies and styles of communication) decisions. Someone entering a shopping mall joins an environment
is centered around buying and expanding into each part of modern where they are a shopper, tempting goods are readily available, and
American life. Airports and train stations are shopping malls. buying is expected. And so they buy. The choice not to consume
New churches are built out of former has quietly been removed. Those who don’t have the ability to
Wal-Mart supercenters with attached When shopping defines public consume—such as the homeless or jobless—are
Starbucks coffee shops. Museum gift space, interactions are flavored by excluded from the consumer society.28
shops dominate the entrances and exits market transactions rather than social
of cultural institutions. These malls connections.
are enclosed, air-conditioned spaces What you do depends on who you think
designed to encourage buying in comfort. Everything in a grocery
26
you are, where you think you are, and
store’s layout, pricing structure and object placement is structured what you think you are expected to do
to extract maximum profit from the shopper. there.
a Connection Through Consumption
why do we consume?

Consuming allows people to express themselves within the consumer

society: to communicate status, group membership, personality, and
identity through objects. Each object purchased and consumed makes a
statement about the individual and
his or her choices, from food to cars The things we choose to buy say things
to clothes. about us—because we have a choice.
These objects speak a language
of connection, bridging group and individual status and showing
Figure 4
individual taste. Each object is invested with multiple meanings by the
owner and by society. Although some of these meanings are clearer than
others, as is the case with all visual communication, object meanings
can consistently be read by observers.
This language of objects is one means of visual communication,
an identity display aimed at
social connection. The medium Objects express our personalities and
by which we express ourselves is status visually through the medium of
consumerism, and each object we consumer purchase and display.
display is a multi-layered expression
of class status, emotion, and individuality. We create our identities
through purchase, either by wholesale adoption of the identities
proffered by media, by opposition and rejection of those identities, or
by picking and choosing pieces. Each person is an individual: but each
individual participates in the system that links identity to object display.

Fig 4 Barbara Kruger, “I shop

therefore I am”
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12 • reduce

the Language of Ads and Objects

what is really being sold to whom?

Barthes, Roland.
29
What happens in an ad is that the ad makers link a product to
Mythologies. 1957.
something more than it actually offers. Using a visual language, it
Opposite Meanings connects a central, desirable idea or a constellation of related ideas
Fig 5a (top): to a product or experience. The
Toyota Prius hybrid ad: Media works through linking layers of
ad never says outright that the
emphasis on green
environment, global issues, product will provide excitement or meaning from a product to an idea.
efficiency and responsible
power or love, but its construction
actions. Text stresses social
facts as well as car facts. sets up the viewer to make that connection when the ad is understood.
The car occupies only a
This language of connections is how media works, using layers of
small portion of the space,
compared to the environment meaning to communicate ideas.29
and natural landscape photos
surrounding it. Ads link the products described with good things—or promise
Concepts: small piece within a help avoiding bad things: each product asks to make a different
larger environment, efficiency,
kind of emotional connection, because each product is aimed at a
interaction with nature.
Fig 5b (bottom):
different target audience by the
Hummer H2 ad: limited text manufacturer. Target audiences Products are targeted towards certain
states “Teach cabbies some
respect.” stressing power and
are made of people with particular audiences, playing on an image similar
authority while playing on the qualities in common: gender, age, to that of the ideal buyer.
iconic yellow colors of both
cabs and Hummer. No facts
education, income, or interests.
provided. Shot from below Some of these divisions are practical: men don’t need to buy tampons,
and front to emphasize auto
size, height, and aggressive
for instance, and don’t need to know that o.b. brand tampons appeal to
grill against barren landscape. younger women. Segmenting the market is important because when
Car fills so much space on
two-page spread that the rear
marketing creates a brand image, the product image and story needs
is cut off. to appeal to the potential buyer. Trying to appeal to a too-general
Concepts: social and audience may turn off more customers than directing a brand image
environmental dominance,
youth, extroversion, power. towards a particular niche.

30
Miller, Geoffrey. Spent: Sex,
Evolution and Consumer
Behavior. Viking Press,
2009.
th
31
Principles of Marketing, 4
European Edition, Kotler,
Armstrong, Saunders, Wong
(2004)
Douglas Rushkoff,
32
“Frontline: The Persuaders”,
PBS. 2004.
This is important because people choose products to represent
their personality and identity. People who want to show off how
tough they are buy off-road SUVs, even We buy things advertised for the idea
if they never drive off-road. People behind it, and what that says about us, as
with a lot of money who want to show
much for the product itself.
off their wealth and taste buy BMWs.
People who want to say they care about the environment and
In the marketing universe, a successful brand is worth more than
efficiency buy the hybrid Prius. The object speaks the language of its
owner, so the owner doesn’t have to. 30 the physical items, from the factory and means of production to
the product itself. Successful companies sell an abstract idea linked
The question is—how do the rest of us know what the object
is saying? There might be an information gap between what an to the product or service, rather than just the product or service.
object is supposed to say and whether a person who sees it can Nike doesn’t sell shoes. Nike tries to brand itself as sports31: it
understand; this is the essential problem of marketing and branding. sponsors athletes, teams, schools; it makes equipment for a huge
People who care about types of cars range of sports, operates retail stores, and sells
The message of an object is readable to
speak a particular dialect that may branded clothing and shoes. The brand is now
an observer—but like all messages, it
not be understandable to someone inseparable from the product, and a vital part
might not be read, or read and ignored. of the product’s perception in the marketplace.
who speaks the dialect of high-heeled
shoes, although both are fluent in the language of objects. Everything surrounding the brand is intended
to create meaning and influence. Douglas Atkins’s market research
This is where media comes back in. It’s important to sell a
into cults, such as Falun Gong and Hare Krishna, and cult brands
product to the people who can buy it—but it’s also important to
from Mac to VW Beetles, turned up two universal desires: to belong
project a message to the people who aren’t going to buy it. These
and to make meaning32—in short, to make connections between the
non-buyers also have to know what the object means, especially
owner and the group via a contextual object.
if they’re supposed to envy the person who can buy it. So BMW
advertises in Vogue and GQ, both for the client with money and
the one without. Prada advertises
Those who understand a particular
in Seventeen. Media shapes the
language of objects and helps gives
object’s dialect are better at noticing
products their meanings. It tells the distinctions in object statements. Those
mass market the story of a brand. who don’t speak the language are left
It also plays with how people think: behind—by accident . . . or choice.
something repeated often enough
gains strength, no matter what is being said.
reduce • 13
14 • reduce

four Types of Object Values

what changes how much something is worth? Value Factors: Beyond Supply and Demand

33
The Atlantic Monthly,
Edward Jay Epstein, “Have
You Ever Tried to Sell a
Diamond?” February 1982.
Humans give objects meanings. These meanings are Functional value: this is what an object does at its basic
based on functions of value that categorize what they level, for its simplest purpose. It is similar to Marx’s “use-value.”
are worth to the user, and the interactions between A pen writes, and a diamond ring decorates a hand.

DeBeers changed the those factors of value.

structure of courtship. Exchange value: this is the economic value of the object in
Their advertising campaign People connect meaning to objects comparison to other objects. A pen is roughly as valuable as three
connected the idea of
romance and love to by assessing the object’s value. pencils, and a diamond ring costs two month’s salary.
a diamond, explicitly
linking the size of the
diamond to the amount of
What this means is that the value of an object exists Symbolic value: this is the value assigned to the object by its
affection—press releases, on multiple, interactive levels at the same time, and user in relation to another subject. The pen might represent years of
stories, and movie product service to a company, while the diamond ring promises marriage.
that the symbolic value and sign value of the object is
placements emphasized
the size of the diamonds in inseparable from the functional value of the object.
stars’ engagement rings.
Signal value: this is the value of an object within a system of
Similarly, the subjective symbolic values “love is
In 20 years the diamond objects signaling something to an outside observer. A Montblanc pen
became an essential part of priceless” and signal value “expensive is better” can shows more wealth and class status than a Bic; a diamond ring is
American courtship.
manipulate the exchange value. more impressive than a plain silver band.
In Japan, DeBeers’s
advertising campaign Each object exists on several levels
featured Japanese men and
women in Western dress that constantly interact with each other.
and non-traditional activities,
symbolizing a break with the
These object values can be manipulated.
past. The diamond became
a symbol of modernity and
marriage for love, instead The DeBeers diamond corporation created the
of arranged marriage. The idea of the diamond engagement ring during the
percentage of Japanese
brides with diamond rings 1940s, in post-WWII America: it is a relatively recent
went from 5% in 1967 to development that within a generation became a social
60% in 1971.
necessity.33 Their media campaigns explicitly linked the

34
Artist Lee Gainer, in the
statement for “Two Month’s
Salary”, refers to an
experiment by CBS Sunday
Morning’s Lesley Stahl in
May 2006, where passersby
were asked to analyze the
reporter’s ring.
35
Virtual goods, from
Facebook gifts to World of
Warcraft weapons to user-
created Second Life items
are a growing industry.
Having a particular rare item
shows how long one has
played a game, for instance,
and customizing one’s
avatar to match a particular
group environment—such
as a goth club or business
meeting makes socializing
with that group easier.
Of course, the symbol for
an avatar marriage inside
a virtual world—is a virtual
diamond ring.
Fig 6 Lee Gainer, “Two
Months’ Salary” Art
comparisons between
the diamond rings that
represent two months of the
comparative salaries of 20
professions.
idea of love, marriage and commitment to a visible object, affecting
the symbol value, while establishing the suggested exchange value
of that object as equivalent to two The meaning of an object exists in the
months’ salary for the groom. This links people make to the object’s values.
connected exchange value to signal
value directly: the type of ring and size of the diamond immediately
shows the wealth of the wearer’s fiance, and this display of social
class is instantly readable34. In any case, the functional value of the
ring does not change, but DeBeers successfully manipulated the
demand for the diamond engagement ring in such a way that it is
now part of American culture and social expectations.
A scarf made by one’s mother
Objects that have the same functional
might have a low signal value and a
value may have wildly different
low exchange value, but a high symbol
exchange, symbol, and signal values.
value because of her love and care. A
brand-name scarf with a prominent logo might have a high signal
value and a high exchange value, but not much of a symbol value.
Both scarves keep the neck warn, so the functional value of the
object stays exactly the same.
Similarly, within the arena of social and virtual worlds like
Second Life and There, real money is spent on virtual items. These
virtual clothes and food have no physical value and a low exchange
value, but a significant signal value and
Virtual items with no physical function
symbolic value35 to the users.
and minimal real cost can still have
Marketing and branding, where great emotional value as well as show
companies try to define what the positional status.
object says to other people, affects
the signal value. Advertising, when it tells a story about the
product, affects the symbol value of the object. In this way, mass-
produced items seem to come with a personal connection to the
buyer, and affect his or her life directly. Products say that they can Figure 6
reduce • 15
16 • reduce

how to Manipulate Object Values

Profit Desire

Function Exchange Symbol Signal

Weak Effect
Advertising
Strong Effect
& Marketing
Manipulation

36
Associated Press,
Lindsey Tanner, August 6,
2007 http://seattletimes.
nwsource.com/htmll/
nationworld/2003824168_
webmcdonalds06.html 77%
of 3- to 5- year old children
offered both McDonald’s
fries and McDonald’s fries in
an unmarked wrapper said
the McDonald’s branded
fries tasted better. 13% said
the unmarked fries tasted
better, while 10% said they
tasted the same.
37
Ariely, Dan, Predictably
Irrational, 2008.
38
CNN, July 27, 2007, Katy
Byron, “Pepsi says Aquafina
is tap water”
transform your life—or that not being able to buy them makes you
feel deprived. Research and development change how an object
functions. Small improvements in Each manipulation of signal, symbol and
function and fashion are released functional value is intended to increase
continually, so people are tempted to
the exchange value of an object.
buy a newer version and each product
maintains a difference from competitors. Each manipulation of the
symbol, signal and function value tries to increase the exchange differences in ingredients, perfumes, packaging, and marketing
value of the object. And they do. make the slight differences between products tangible. For most
Goods obey a demand curve, with pricing on one axis and products, the functional value is the same, forcing manufacturers
purchases on the other. For goods like toothpaste and butter, to emphasize slight differences in function and design. Store-brand
increasing the price lowers general demand, and the demand curve cookies are made in the same factories with similar recipes to
slopes downward. Other goods, like name-brand cookies. Store-brand clothes are
Object value affects how people worn in the same way, using the styles copied
Gibson guitars, have an upward-
sloping demand curve because
perceive an object—how they choose it from name-brand clothes. The name brand
consumers assume that a higher price from its competitors and enjoy it later. might be slightly better, but it costs a lot more.37
means a significantly better product. The reason why people do pay more is often not
The perception of exchange value and signal value affects how because they actually perceive a difference in function, but because
the symbolic value and signal value of the object are much higher.
people perceive quality. Surveys show that more expensive wines
are rated as more enjoyable than cheaper wines, even though most People will pay a lot more for a product that promises a great
experience, greater convenience, or greater status, than for one that
people cannot tell the difference in blind tasting. So marketing
affects value and enjoyment: children offered McDonald’s fries just fills basic needs. This is why people will pay hundreds of times
in the McDonald’s wrapper and identical fries in plain wrappers more for bottled water than tap water, despite the products being
rated the McDonald’s-wrapped fries exactly the same. Pepsi’s Aquafina water is tap
as tastier.36 Perceptions of taste are Most mass-produced items perform water in a bottle.38 Aquafina costs 200 times as
affected by branding and value. adequately. But slight differences much as tap water, while Evian costs 450 times
encourage people to buy more and pay as much.
One of the benefits of mass-
more.
production is that most products are
pretty good, and the purchaser can
expect the same basic function value from purchased products.
All soaps are basically the same: they all clean pretty well and
are unlikely to burn off the user’s face with too much lye. Slight
reduce • 17
18 • reduce “My old robe was one with the other rags
that surrounded me.”
“...I was the absolute master of my old
robe. I have become the slave of the new
the Diderot Unity one.”
why is the matching set so compelling? —Denis Diderot, 1769

MSNBC, “As Economy

39
Objects make connections between the object and the owner, from the
Needs Cash, Americans
Are Saving”, Associated owner to a group, and to other objects that share the same perceived
Press 2009 qualities. What this means is that a
McCracken, Grant, Culture BMW driver shouldn’t have to eat Objects make links between the owner,
40

and Consumption, 1998

mac-and-cheese—though he could a group, and other objects with the same
if he wishes.39 In the parking lot of perceived qualities.
an organic farmer’s market, you’re
more likely to find a Prius than a Hummer. The Prius is a statement of
care for the environment that can easily link up with the statement of
buying organic produce. The gas-guzzling pseudo-military Hummer is
the complete opposite.
The links between these objects are called the Diderot Unity—we
want objects that match the other objects we own.40 The Diderot Unity
is a masterpiece of psychological
connection: it asks that objects These links are called the Diderot Unity:
which are invested with similar the objects match each other and one’s
qualities and meanings become vision of the self.
grouped together and associated
with each other, even if there is no actual linkage between them.
These can be read by outside observers, because branding attempts
to generate emotions and images around objects, and if successful,
different people make the same connections and attach the same
meanings to the same objects. People like the objects they own to
connect with them, as well as the other objects they already possess,
and want to consume in a fashion that signals a consistent identity.

41
Economist John Maynard
Keynes called this “induced
consumption by increased
disposable income.”
The Diderot Effect is
responsible for how desires
shift and how people spend
more on new “basic needs”
without realizing it; the
Hedonic Treadmill ensures
that happiness induced
through consumption does
not last very long.
42
Miller, Geoffrey. Spent: Sex,
Evolution and Consumer
Behavior.Viking Press, 2009.
43
Ibid.
When people choose objects that fit their consistent identity, we see
the Diderot Effect in action. Usually the Diderot Effect goes hand in
hand with a lifestyle upgrade, where Choosing objects to fit one’s chosen
people buy more and better products identity is the Diderot Effect.
to consistently represent their new
lifestyle and resources41.
These objects display a constellation of personality traits and
tastes around individuals in the consumer society. They show our overrated. The fundamental consumer delusion is that other people
care about the things we own as much as we do. Signaling to other
class status and tastes: whether we like displays of excess, precision,
or reputation. These choices show what kind of people we are, and people is important to one’s daily life—but it affects strangers
the kind of groups in which we want to belong. Objects we choose more than close friends and family. The people you interact with
show aspects of our personalities: boring or strange, aggressive most don’t care about what is being said by the kind of clothes
or gentle, smart or dumb, among you wear, because they already know what kind of person you are
others.42 Sometimes we buy objects to These objects display our tastes in from talking to you.43 Visual communication, for
represent qualities we don’t necessarily consumption, our personalities, and people and brands, establishes an initial surface
cover for what we want to display but do perception—actual interaction is the solid meat
have, but want to show off : iPhones
underneath.
to show how smart and hip we are, not actually possess.
flowers and stuffed animals to show off It might be that the story of consuming for
identity purposes is more for the individual to tell stories about
sensitivity—or remorse.
This is important during grouping because people generally him- or herself. This is fundamentally narcissistic, but the defining
like other people who are like them, and tastes in objects of mark of modern consumer society is that since it provides so much
consumption, like music and clothes, are a shorthand for reading choice to the individual, each individual becomes the subjective
personality. Similar people prefer similar objects due to personality center of their own universe.
and experiences—and people with similar tastes gravitate towards
similar experiences and similar media.
For many contemporary products, Other people can certainly read these
consumer marketing attempts to displays, but don’t care nearly as much
present a cohesive brand personality: as we do about the things we own.
a consistent, clear identification that
connects with a target audience.
But objects, though they are powerful identity messages, are
reduce • 19
20 • reduce

the Self and Consumer Society Today

what happens when everyone becomes their own media?

Lipovetsky, Gilles.
44
With the rise of the constant and ever-increasing focus on the
Hypermodern Times, 2005.
individual (customizable options for everything from shoes to cars,
personal web pages, blogs, digital avatars) expressions of identity have
moved to the digital age. Edward Bernays’s propaganda techniques
influenced mass media after the beginning of mass production—but
what of a society that operates
with new media, where the trend Media sends messages to mass culture,
is to return to more customization, but today the tools of media are available
and each individual has the tools to everyone.
to become the media?
It enhances a narcissist movement towards a more fragmented and
paradoxical age. Fragmented—because the availability of unlimited
personal choice and free expression encourages the development of
subcultures and movements—and the acceptance of other people’s
differences. Mainstream ideas and taboos, such as on tattoos and
homosexuality, have fallen away with the decline of mainstream
culture.
The presence of more choices
It is paradoxical because encourages the divergence of more
this fragmentation shows itself subcultures, niche environments, and
in essentially contradictory conflicting desires.
social movements and cultural
expressions44: an obsession with health and fitness as well as
indulgence, as obesity rates and anorexic behaviors double in 20 years;
a fascination with teenage purity and chastity that operates in the same
time and space as Girls Gone Wild and webcams; the stark differences

45
Lipovetsky, Gilles. The
Empire of Fashion: Dressing
Modern Democracy, 2002
46
Holt, Douglas B. How
Brands Become Icons:
The Principles of Cultural
Branding, 2004.
47
Good Magazine, Stephen
Linaweaver, Michael
Keating and Brad Bate.
“Conspicuous, But Not
Consuming” June 20, 2009.
between political sites catering to the left and right, moving people
further apart with little connection in between. People can choose
objects that fit their own identity—and
socialize exclusively with people like The Internet enables more individualism
themselves. Each individual struggles but produces its own anxieties and
to achieve consistency through objects, disconnections.
but the sheer variety of objects and
identities available means that group connections through shared were aspirational; VW iconic. If Coke and Pepsi battle it out with
media and shared objects have weakened. 45 competing pop stars, Mountain Dew reinvents itself with nerds,
For each societal movement—each group of individuals who rednecks, and extreme sports. The stories these brands tell becomes
important because there are so many competing stories—but iconic
believe in a concept—there is also a wave of resistance from
individuals who define themselves in opposition. The stronger the ideas tell easily accessible stories that connect with people’s deepest
primary wave becomes, the more resolute the smaller wave grows as cultural and personal desires and fears. They manipulate the
well. What this means is that in the space of a cultural anxiety, there symbols of the age rather than the signals.
If the spirit of the age is obsessed with
is always room for a countercultural We want what we do not have: each
movement (or movements) in fragmented cultural trend has a wave of consumption—in good times and bad times,
response. opposition underneath it. there’s a market for less consumption. The Web
The response to fast food is slow 2.0 allows the individual to become their own
food: home cooking, gourmet luxury, made with local, organic media—to provide tools and tell stories about themselves on a
ingredients. The rise of Michael Pollan doesn’t mean that Burger digital level rather than a material level.47
King and McDonald’s are any less lucrative, but it marks a growing
trend. The Hummer and the Prius exist at two poles of mixed
consumer desire and anxiety.
An aspirational brand moves within the primary wave of
conspicuous consumption, of success Successful stories can position
and power. Iconic brands (as opposed themselves in the primary wave or the
to aspirational brands), insert opposition.
themselves in the spaces of a cultural
anxiety and play with that anxiety.46 They don’t move within the
zeitgeist of an age but against it— commenting on it, and resonating
with it, in a populist fantasy world. Detroit’s cars in the 1970s
reduce • 21
22 • reduce

the Power of Seduction

will the carrot do better than the stick?

“Advertising does not take on the task of completely redefining the

human race; it exploits embryonic tendencies that are already present
by making them more attractive to people.”
—Gilles Lipovetsky, “The Empire of Fashion”
There are so many different motivations for behaviors and beliefs
that it is impossible to manipulate them all—but merely playing on one
is enough. PETA’s goal is to make humans treat other animals better,
Adbusters’s goal is to make people
There is a vast difference between
aware of negative aspects of
operating a striking campaign and a
consumption. Both use shocking
seductive one.
tactics, moral arguments, and
devastating imagery, but are not wholly convincing. Their tactics are
striking, but not seductive.
Seduction is reframing the situation to one’s benefit, presenting
temptation. Seductive campaigns use manipulative tactics, harnessing
a strong idea to shape consumer desires.They also exist in the shadow
of a cultural issue, and they link their imagery to cultural aspects.
For example, eating organic food
Seduction reframes the situation to one’s
and buying green products exist
benefit, using a tempting carrot rather
within the cultural anxieties of
than the stick.
health, self-interest vs community
interest, environmental
destruction and just business practices—while they also have a certain
status due to the increased price of ‘eco-friendly’, ‘socially-conscious’

55
Cialdini, Robert. ”Which
messages spur citizens to
protect the environment?
The secret impact of social
norms” RSA talk, transcript
January 25. 2007.
56
Cigarettes say outright on
the packaging that they will
kill you.
57
Stice, Eric and Presnell,
Katherine. The Body
Project: Promoting Body
Acceptance and Preventing
Eating Disorders, Facilitator
Guide, 2007.
58
TIME Magazine, Sanjay
Gupta, “Taking On the Thin
Ideal,” 2007
products and the educated user base. Health and ethics can also be Similarly, the successful Body Project campaign57, a set of four
portrayed as indulgence. Research into the benefits of organic food one-hour discussions where groups of high-school girls and college-
has shown relatively little difference aged women looked at the role of media images
between consuming standard and
Any idea can be co-opted and subverted, in promoting low self-esteem and anorexia used
organic produce—yet most consumers used to contradict itself. the seductive ideas of rebellion paired with
think of organic food as safer, acceptance. These short talks had an amazing
healthier, and better for the environment. These resonant ideas link effect on the participants: a 61% decrease in eating disorders over
themselves to visuals such as green earth motifs, growing plants and the next three years.58 The program required participant rebellion
children, and work seductively on the general public as well as the against media constructs of beauty, posting notes in public
targeted audience. restrooms with messages such as, “You Are Beautiful”; talking about
One of the major pitfalls of social campaigns has been that how they felt in public discussions and using social media and
the line between raising awareness of a topic in order to prevent blogs. This campaign asks the user to become their own media and
behavior and promoting that behavior as a norm (and shaping state their resistance as normal, in order to present a social message,
social proof ) is very thin. Anti-drug giving people the tools and opportunity to resist
Health can also be an indulgence.
and suicide prevention coverage can rather than banning ads for them. It’s the act of
Controlling desire can be as much of a
increase negative behaviors because resistance—and public action—that lets people
luxury as engaging desire.
copycat behaviors result.55 Another take control over their own minds and behaviors.
pitfall has been that negative campaigns are easily discounted: even If it is possible for graphic design to encourage people to
the most shocking images and messages56 lose their power, and buy more, it must be possible to reverse engineer and co-opt
negative campaigns must fight against ingrained habits as well as messages that encourage buying less. Guy Debord, in describing
competing images and user mockery. détournement, claimed that any idea could be subverted, with
Positive campaigns, such as the “X Is My Anti-Drug” succeed existing signs or symbols used to contradict themselves.
because they do not mention the bad behaviors at all, subtly One seductive idea for less consumption is the idea of being
redirecting the conversation to positive behaviors that participants freer to live a simpler life: being less anchored to material goods,
prefer over drug use. This campaign uses participants’ existing untroubled by the stresses of competitive consumption.This idea
behaviors as motivation. Rather than positions denying desire as a choice and a
promoting drug use as something An individual realizing control over luxury—it makes the ability to live with less a
common, the emphasis is that most identity and environment gains power. statement of power rather than an admission
people are not drug users, and that the of poverty. Freedom from want has at least two
alternative to drug use is much more exciting. meanings: satisfaction through having more than you could possibly
desire—and from the burden of desire itself.
reduce • 23
24 • reduce “The human animal is a beast that must die.
If he’s got money, he buys and buys and buys
everything he can, in the crazy hope one of
those things will be life-everlasting, which it
not Buying It can never be.”
what do we really want ? —Tennessee Williams, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”

During the examination of themes in this essay, I have struggled with

the paradoxical love and loathing for various aspects of consumer
society. As well, I am continually amazed at the mechanisms—societal,
corporate, and psychological—that affect the values and language of
objects through human manipulation, and the reasons why objects are
consumed so avidly.
Humans invest meaning into objects because what we really want is to
mediate the connections between
people with these objects. The first We invest meaning into objects so the
connection is from the object to objects can mediate the connections
ourselves, to tell the story of who between people.
we are through our choices. The
next is to connect to those around us via the display of those objects—to
find common ground and to express status and desire.
We buy and consume because of the connections media draw between
ideas and objects. The language of objects is the language of desire, and
the essence of that desire is human connection.
This language has been linked
to consumerism because the The language of objects is the language
mechanism for obtaining things in of desire, and the essence of that desire
a capitalist society has been linked is human connection.
to buying and consumer choice:
if we made our own clothes and shared singular communal items, the
objects would still have meaning and value. We cannot help but place

Koolhaas, Rem, Delirious
59
New York, 1978.
60
Cialdini, Robert. Influence:
Science and Practice, 2009.
meanings into objects, and the longer we keep and use items, the
more symbolic they become to us.
What we long for is connection—
Objects promise what they cannot really
but the truth is that objects promise
much more than they actually can
provide, and often produce the opposite
provide, and connection can be effect of what is desired.
attained through means other than
material consumption. Many consumer products such as single- own identities and operate in controllable environments—and the
serving packets, tinted windows, actually enable isolation and designing of choices in those environments are even more up to the
anxiety, replacing connection with an endless cycle of consumption. individuals themselves.
Like the naked boxers eating oysters with boxing gloves59 Koolhaas The Web is also a display of Lipovetsky’s paradoxical impulses:
describes in Delirious New York—a set of elite men at the peak the desire for online trade and commerce drives many sites
of physical health eating aphrodisiacs yet isolated from women, and technological developments, yet the movement toward
connection and reproduction by their social media, file sharing, and open source
success—we find that the ability to The ability to consume has outpaced the participation and development—things that are
consume has outpaced the point of point of consumption. largely volunteer-based, community-oriented,
consumption. The boxers have no one and free rather than consumer-oriented—also
to receive their signals. Consumption for the sake of consumption is thrives. The choice to consume exists, but choosing between one
meaningless and counterproductive—but the act of consumption is product and another is not a true choice unless the choice not
always justified by the consumer’s provision of meaning. to consume, or to consume less also exists—where people can
People can connect through shared ideas, shared actions, and consume less by connecting more.
shared objects—in short, through bypassing the link from an
object and going more directly to the feeling it represents, by
acknowledging its symbolic value.
Much of the process of
People can connect through means other
connecting people through objects than consumption—passing directly to
is done through principles of visual the symbolic value of the object.
similarity—but people can also
connect through principles of cooperation (shared goals, praise, and
appreciation), and similarity of ideas60. The Internet and Web 2.0
epitomizes the malleability of identity: where people can shape their
reduce • 25