I am a student studying journalism and within the course we cover a wide range of subjects. Marketing is one of them. In class we have discussed adds, the then and now, along with that we discussed the term "Flapper" which is what you can describe as the working woman and then the house wife. We also conversed about the male equivalents. But what really caught my attention and made me sit bolt up right was when the teacher started to use words like "Conformity" and "consumerism". She explained how advertisements work and how they depict certain life styles, how companies try to make us want these life styles and tell us that their product can provide these lifestyles to us. Fight Club quotes just whizzed about my head like missiles and I wanted to start a Tyler Durden-esk monologue right there, but I knew I couldn't. It'd be too weird, well cool to me but I doubt it would impress my class mates. My teacher asked "What does advertising do?". Instantly I had an answer, well it wasn't my answer but Tyler's "Advertising has us chasing sports cars, working jobs we hate, buying shit we don't need to impress people be don't like."
My teacher, Alison, went on to talk about IKEA as a brand and my mind almost ruptured. "Like so many I became a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct"- Narrator(from Fight Club). I mean this stuff is so relevant and true to me now. I'm more aware of it all. I mean IKEA is a mega brand, a monster of a retailer. It has 332 stores in 38 countries, as of October 2011. It employs roughly 139,000 people and has a net worth of over 32 Billion. But IKEA alone consumes 1% of the worlds wood making it Earth's largest consumer of wood. We all have IKEA products in our homes now. It is spreading. Yes the furniture is cheap and the style is relatively in fashion but you can not put a price on individualism.
People love to express themselves as individuals but isn't it counter-productive if you go out and buy the same pillows and chairs as all the other "Individuals" in your life? You can't be a group of individuals. "Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions". You can't afford to get hung up on meaningless objects "the things you own end up owning you". Just because your friend has one or because you saw your favourite celebrity holding it in their hand does not mean you need it. Celebrity is nothing. Anybody can be famous if they just let go of their self respect. Create your own life style. Don't become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct or everything will just become a copy of a copy of a copy. We don't want the mega corporations to own everything. We don't! The things you own end up owning you if you let them. If you let your guard down and get sucked into the operation MK Ultra experiment style of advertising.
Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve and let the chips falls were they may.
You want to be famous but respected? Work at it don't buy it. Don't buy a tone of shit because you saw Angelina Jolie wear it. "Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken."
"We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are the celebrity magazines, televisions with five hundred channels, some guys name on my underwear." You and I are not beautiful and unique snowflakes we are the same decaying matter as everyone else we are all part of the same compost heap." So before we die from exposure to the poisonous fumes excreted by the money hungry suits lets try break free and run from the herd. Once in a while make the choice, don't buy from IKEA, Starbucks, Nike or the others help the little guy break the chain. Buy what you need and what you really want not what celebrities on the T.V tell you you want.
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