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Think you love shopping? It's the marketing scam of the century


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US author Benjamin Barber explains how buying things ceased to be a chore and became a fun day out
lecoke

17 responses // Think you love shopping? It's the marketing scam of the century

  • I totally agree that it can be fun
    CharlieG
  • Buying things -- a chore? Never! Shopping appeals to my most primitive hunter-gatherer instincts, which is why I will always love to shop.

    OK, I'll admit I have not yet read the article this links to.
    Julie_Soller
  • Well, in the suburbs the local park (if there even is one) is so small you can walk in and out of it in five strides, because it's been replaced by the mall: a privately owned social space where they have the right to kick you out if you're not buying.

    It's really ridiculous, this whole idea that you have to be spending money to go out and have fun, and that the resulting knickknacks are somehow trophies of that.

    It's even more ridiculous that most everyone on some level believes it.
    IAmTheWalter
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB5NYme0Ptg&eurl=http://...
    Adam Curtis has a thing or two to say on this matter!
    dearmat23
  • From the article: "An awful lot of products are not necessary, whether fast food or gadgets or games," he explains. "I can't tell you where the tipping point is, but we're way over it."

    I hate shopping. I guess hooked on gadgets didn't work for me.
    dbocaz
  • shopping? YUK! I've always hated the mall, shopping and browsing. It was a proud but lonely girlhood. Sigh.
    cheyroze
  • Although I agree that the future may lay in the hands of the youth, I'm pretty sure kids these days will get a slap in the face once they are let lose in the real world. Sooner or later they won't be babied anymore and it's either they make it out or not.

    And what Spiderman said, "with great power comes great responsibility." If you have the money, by all means, you can do whatever you want. Just have some sense of self-control.
    pogschampion
  • I think this is a bigger problem than people are willing to admit. Check out thestoryofstuff.com if you haven't (and The End of Suburbia for that matter)...

    Remember Adam Smith? Our entire economy is based on the quaint but outdated theory that infinite growth is possible and should be actively pursued. Well, reality check for those marketers--an economy based on finite resources can't grow infinitely.

    Time to ask, "How much is enough?"
    Kati_kat
  • i only buy what i need. i detest shopping.
    diode
  • I personally think shopping is a whopping pain in the ass.
    Get in, get out, get it over with.
    Of course they'll have you believe that the amount of crap you own is equal to social status and success in life...what better way to keep the populace feeding at the trough of grossly mutated consumerism?
    Humdrum
  • I couldn't agree more.

    It is just these "needs" that are manufactured that is responsible for the increase in medical conditions such as depression and abnormal anxiety.

    And please don't throw out the old contradictions that "the book of diagnosis has grown... more people go to the docto, etc."
    thisismattholt
  • But buying stuff fills the empty void in my heart...

    ...temporarily...
    Owwmykneecap
  • i need to go shopping for hush puppies,
    i don't need to buy them but they
    are so comfy.
    phukna
  • I fight the hype, but it's hard to watch the home decorating shows and not want to buy useless little decorations for my home whenever I'm out! Do I really need all matching picture frames? Probably not...
    Elligirl
  • Hmm... Well, I agree with the premise that consumerism is a problem, both environmentally and socially, and that targeting young people and brainwashing them into thinking they need certain products to be happy is sinister and misleading, I think the culture clash of worrying about young people's nail polish and music tastes not "maturing", took the article off course. Also, some of the statistics seem suspect. If the average American watches 60 hours of TV per week, that's just under 10 hours per day. Where'd they get that number?
    heatherjanes
  • It's sweeping around the world too... =/
    cerealforeal
  • I hate shopping, but I love buying. BUt only if I want and need it... or just want it... okay okay I want EVERYTHING....AHHHHHH
    kDrew_Productions

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