Life-Style and Consumerism

yasraf amir piliang

Consumption (1)
value

Consumption is a process of appropriating or annihilating the of an object or commodity (function, use, utility).

Consumption is material and functional in its nature: to destroy the material or to use its function.

Carl Gardner Consuming Passion, Unwin & Hyman, 1989

Consumption (2)
Consumption is the totality of all objects and messages

Consumption . . .is a systematic act of the manipulation

of

signs.
What is consumed are not objects but the relationsignified and absent, included and excluded at the same time.

Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, Verso, 1989

Goods & Consumption

Goods is a medium in which cultural manipulated.

meaning can be variously

Goods allow meaning to be made visible. Culture use objects to

convince.
The commodity becomes an object of passion, a source of potential

distinctiveness.

Grant M. Craken, Culture and Consumption, Indiana University Press, 1990 Alan Tomlinson, Consumption, Identity & Style, Routledge, 1991

Consumerism
Manipulation of the behaviour of consumers, through every aspect of

marketing and communication, from pricing to packaging,

from sale presentation to advertising Cosumption is both symbolic and material, which express a persons place in the world, his or her core identity Consumption is a manipulation of sign to mark social (status, class, prestige)

difference

Jean Baudrillard, Consumer Society Verso, 1990

Consumer Society
The conditioning of needs (particularly through advertising) has become the favorite theme in the discourse on consumer

society.

Consumer society is a society in which the manipulation of

sign, communication and codes of commodities is the very essence of society,

Jean Baudrillard, Consumer Society Verso, 1990

Need and Want

Need is more material and biological in its character, where its fulfillment nullifies the need.
Want is more psychological (unconscious) in its basis, which can not
be fulfilled. The fulfillment of a desire produce another desire

(desiring machine).

Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, VikingPress, 1990

Value
Use Value is grounded in the possibility of the object satisfying
some identifiable human need or desire.

Exchange value is a value generated when different sorts of

commodities (with different use value) are exchanged, expressed in price.

Sign Value is an abstract value generated through the

manipulation of signs, codes and meaning in the commodities.

Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, Telos Press, 1981

Sign Value

EV UV

Sr Sd
EV = Exchange Value UV = Use Value Sr = Signifier Sd = Signified

The Role of Advertisement

Advertisement have a central role in constructing various

illusions through rhetoric.

It is a form of seduction, to influence consumers behavior, want and perception Advertisement changes want to become need
Judith Williamson, Consuming Passion, 1985

Logic of Sign
The object takes on the value of a sign. Exp: washing machine serves as equipment and play as an element of comfort, or of prestige.
In the logic

of sign, objects are no longer tied to a function or to a defined need, but to to a social logic, or to a logic of desire.
And this desire, which can never be satisfied, signifies itself locally in a

succession of objects and . . .differential meanings.

Body Signs

Audio Signs

Visual Signs

Flavor Signs

musik body adorn

filem

makanan

asesori tatto fiercing

minuman parfum

Odorous Signs

Gesture

fashion

Written Signs

buku novel koran

majalah

mobil hp jam

Object Signs

Signs of Lifestyle
Oral Signs
ucapan mall

kantor rumah

Spatial Signs

Logic of Seduction
Symbols are employed to depict that buying is
something easy, enjoyable, fun, and limitless The is a kind of manipulation at the level of

perception and consciousness, that force

or stimulate one to buy A system of seduction is used to control consumers

preferences

Logic of Illusion
Consumerism is a condition in which one buys illusion rather than merely product Products are encoded by various forms of sign in order to manipulate consumers perception and consciousness. Illusions of whiteness, manliness, freshness, naturalness is a way of manipulating consciousness

Logic of Desire

Consumption is a form of the desiring

machine.

Through consumption, desire is canalized but at the same time is

produced
Logic of need is replaced by the logic

of desire

Penutup