Consumerism and Collecting (Part 2)

Hi everyone! Hope everyone’s enjoying recess week!

 

Picking up where I left off from my previous post, I thought it would be a good idea to examine the omnipresent force that is advertising. It is arguably one of the key drivers that has pushed me to become a collector and continues to influence my buying decisions. After all, how else are multi-media giants like Disney going to offload their plastic miniature merchandise on consumers like me?

 

Presentation and packaging is everything.

 

We are all very familiar with advertisements. They are on billboards, plastered on the sides of passing buses and, annoyingly, are on every YouTube video we click on! We are also familiar with its objective: TO SELL US STUFF.  Advertisements are very much the workhorse that sustains the consumerist culture. It has enabled this culture to thrive in many societies across the globe.  Noam Chomsky, an American Linguist, gives a brilliant elaboration on this phenomenon. In it, he describes how the advertising industry perpetuates the idea that a consumer’s happiness is inextricably linked to the product being sold. This tactic works particularly well on children, who go on to beg their parents for said product. This idea becomes ingrained in them, gradually becoming a part of their psyche.

 

Given how big my collection has become since my youth, I am inclined to agree with him.

 

I recently surveyed 19 of my fellow BES students to get their views on advertising. Many gave comments that alluded to Chomsky’s point. One responder commented that advertisements “appeal to our innate desires.” On this issue, Chomsky argues that this materialistic desire is a result of omnipresent advertisement constantly bombarding us with products, and that it is not an innate part of human nature.

 

Honestly speaking, this statement made me feel rather vulnerable, specifically because it implied that my entire hobby was simply the result of some corporation’s advertising machinations. I’ve had some awareness of this in the past and have been actively steering my hobby away from a constant cycle of buying, more on that in the next post!

 

Other students also highlighted how advertisement campaigns “change the consumers’ perception to view the brand/product more favourably”, making them “more inclined to purchase the item even if they don’t really need/want it.” These statements are very much applicable to me! Recall how my opinion on the latest stormtrooper figure took a 180 degree turn after hearing positive reviews about it.

 

Here Take my money!

Interestingly, these reviews were from fellow collectors and not advertisements. This shows an odd trend being played out within the collector community; through our reviews and social media posts, we have unwittingly become the advertisers for the products we consume! We become enablers of one another, sharing justifications for our next purchase and constantly renewing our cycle of buying.

 

This does not bode well for the environment. Under our misguided impression that products bring us happiness, we continue to exhaust our natural resources and generate more waste. If we’re not careful, our endless consumption to appease ourselves will hollow out the earth, leaving it degraded and depressed.

 

 

“Cool Globes Chicago Sad Earth” by John LeGear is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0r

 

 

Perhaps it’s time to look past product adverts and aesthetics, and truly ask myself why I’m into collecting.

References

Lewis, J. (18 June, 2011). The power of advertising: a threat to our way of life. Retrieved from openDemocracy: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/power-of-advertising-threat-to-our-way-of-life/

Times, T. Ž. (Director). (2017). Noam Chomsky on consumerism & advertising [Motion Picture].

 

6 thoughts on “Consumerism and Collecting (Part 2)

  1. Hi Joseph!

    This is a very relatable post as I’m sure all of us were once victims of advertisements >< However, do you think that advertisement is the only cause of us buying and collecting more? Also, do you think it is justifiable if we find a use for the object we buy, although we already have one that is similar?

    – Jo

    1. Hi Jo!

      I do think advertisements play a big role in steering us towards a cycle of purchasing, but there are also other factors, both personal and psychological (the latter of which I will be exploring soon!) which influences our decision to buy products.

      With regards to the second question, I would say it really depends on the rationale of getting another product that you already have.

      In the context of figure collecting, collectors come up with various reasons for this! Here are two off the top of my head:

      1. Buy 3 of the same figure: one to open, one to keep in the packaging, and one to keep as a spare/ to sell
      2. Army building: As the name suggest, collectors buy a ton of the same figure (usually a foot soldier of some kind) to form their own mini army. I’m a little guilty of this XD .

      Thanks for the questions!

  2. Hi Joseph! Just wanted to say that I loved the use of photographs in this post, especially the “Here, take my money!” one (I laughed when I saw it) because even though I don’t collect such figurines, I do collect other things and this just makes it extremely relatable. However, I am curious to hear your thoughts on whether these toys could actually be used to instead advertise the opposite message (i.e. instead of convincing one to buy more, what if it convinces you to buy less by setting things into perspective)? If it was so successful in convincing people to buy more, I do wonder what’s stopping the industry from at least setting things into perspective (or at least encourage the purchasing of buying sustainable toys, for example, because I do acknowledge as well that this is a business haha).

    It also reminds me of the lecture we had before recess week with regards to corporate social responsibility where competition’s quite prevalent in order to attract more customers to buying the said product (i.e. those with green labels, for example) for the sake of it being for the greater good of society eventually. Do you think that this market of figurines and toys could perhaps do the same as well and what could possibly happen if it was done so? For me, advertising goes a long way and if it were to get people to do something good, why not?

    Looking forward to hearing from you soon with regards to these opinions!

    1. Hey Natasha, that’s a really great question!

      I doubt these companies would use the toys themselves to encourage collectors to control their consumption. Like you said, they are a business and to them convincing their consumer base to buy less of their product is pretty much akin to shooting their own leg off!

      However, there are other ways of doing this. In fact, I think they are indirectly doing this now by marketing certain figures as ‘exclusive’ products. For instance, Hasbro, multinational toy manufacturer, usually sells a few of its figures at selected retail outlets, like Target, Walmart or Gamestop (these are all US departmental stores). These figures can only be purchased at their respective outlets and only a limited number are produced. As such they tend to be priced way higher than the standard figure at retail price. I’m talking like, FOUR times more than the retail price (Which I think is really crazy especially since many of these figures are just minor variations of past releases). Usually obscene price tags like that are enough to drive me away!

      Beyond the toys themselves, Hasbro has announced a few sustainability initiatives. For instance, they have partnered with a waste management company called TerraCycle as part of their Hasbro Toy Recycling Program. . The program encourages its consumers to ship their “pre-loved” toys to the company where it will be recycled. In addition, Hasbro announced it has substituted Polyvinyl Chloride with Polyethylene terephthalate as part of its product packaging. The former compound has been flagged by the Commission of European Commissions for having trace amounts of lead and cadmium, both of which are heavy metals that present adverse human health risks. The latter is a ubiquitous component of many products such as plastic drinking bottles. Both plastics are recyclable.

      As of September 4th, 2018, Hasbro also achieved carbon neutrality by buying carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates from an environmental consultancy firm called 3Degrees.
      Curiously, they’re stated sources of emissions are mainly from fuel, electricity use, employee business travel and third party distribution respectively. There was no mention of the carbon footprint of the raw materials used for toy production.

      My best guess for this absence is that the raw materials’ carbon footprint are technically from Hasbro’s raw material suppliers, but (I’m guessing for corporate confidentiality) these suppliers weren’t mentioned.

      Either way, I do think these efforts by Hasbro are commendable and goes to show that it is possible for the toy industry to act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner (though they may want to follow up with their suppliers and see if they are doing so as well!) .

  3. Hi Joseph,

    This is great stuff and, like Natasha, I loved that middle photo (so awesome). You’re evidently a clever, creative and effective blogger. I bet you could create an entire series of images using your figurines. Kind of like this person did with legos.
    https://legomyphoto.wordpress.com/

    One thing you might like to reconsider is how you light your photos. This is just my opinion, but I quite like the mood created by this dark lighting. The only problem is the wallet is dark and so’s the background – actually, I didn’t see the wallet at first. Maybe you need a different background or could do some adjusting in Lightroom.

    On that note, as interested as I am in hearing more about the environmental implications of toys, some of the content in this and the last post has me quite curious about the potential for beneficial impact, if there is any. Of course, this is YOUR blog and these are just my thoughts.

    jc

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