Consumerism. It seems as though corporations have shifted the emphasis from the masses to the individual. However, what seems like a more personal touch, is actually nothing more than a general template, used to encompass society in the masses. IPods are not catered towards your needs. How many of us who own iPods actually have 20,000 songs to fill them with? Of the people I know, I can tell you that I can count them on one hand. But why has Apple been so successful at selling a product that a majority of the population would not need? Because our society today focuses on one thing, and one thing only – Style.
Mass media perpetuates the myth of consumerism as a priority of the New Capitalism. As America settles into its nightly routine of television viewing, corporate profiteers are quick to substitute the lure of material luxury and consumer gratification for the fading spirit. Media advertising sells an image — an empty shell.
- Cronk, Rip, M.A., University of New Mexico
Cronk defines the lust over gratification amongst our peers as being nothing more than superficial. Why strive to be something we are not? Why strive to be as skinny as a twig? Why sell my body? Because society craves it.
Corporate America placates its flaccid public with dispiriting pastiche. There is only fraudulent illusion. Instead of Swiss clockworks encased in hand carved hardwood, the consumer is offered a cheap imitation of routed particle board and computer chip technology. Who cares as long as it looks good?
-Cronk, Rip, M.A., University of New Mexico
Who cares as long as it looks good? Powerful stuff.
Let’s take a look at one of Apple’s advertisements, and amateur imitations.
The Get a Mac campaign of commercials have been very popular amongst viewers. In 2006, the year it first debuted, it won the “Best Video Ad” given out by US News. Professor Stephen Marshall sums it up neatly.
The message of these ads is clear. Every one of them says, 『Don’t be this guy.』 You don’t want to be the PC.
-Professor Stephen Marshall
And the results were clear as well. Following the Get a Mac campaign, Apple’s market share of the computer/laptop market grew by 42%.
Now here’s an amateur parody of the successful Get a Mac campaign.
It is definitely interesting to note that the parody actually had more than 3 times more views than the actual Get a Mac commercial itself. This just shows the power that the Apple brand commands in today’s society. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Is society really this myopic?
-Lookupthere
