Thoughts

This week's class material has me thinking about how advertising manipulates we think and feel about ourselves. We are shaped by the resources available to us, and clothing styles often reflect technological achievements of the time, and this affects the types of clothing most commonly worn in a society, with variations between classes. We learn to recognize fine things of the rich, and the common things of the poor. However, what is seen as fashionable to an upper class could easily be copied and cheapened by lower classes, rendering it out of style again to the rich, who must move on to something else. As women, the pressure to have fine possessions, and to guard our precious things, and to be savvy to what is most beautiful or coveted, can be especially strong, I think.
The very fact that a product exists makes us think we need it. The word manipulation, in describing advertising's relationship with consumer society, has negative connotations. It can be described other ways. Ultimately, though, I think that we serve a purpose, as buyers, and a great deal of work is put into satisfying our needs, and that so many discoveries have been made about how to control the way people think and feel through images and linguistics that simple advertising over-steps its boundaries by doing more than necessary. Consumerism creates needs that aren't there, just to satisfy them, which has a multitude of psychological, social, financial effects.