Extra Credit Assignment (10 points)

Extra Credit Assignment (10 points) • Bring in 2-3 advertisements from the newspaper, magazine, or a printed ad from on-line. • Make sure to put your name and class day/time on the back of the adverstisement.

Exam Question: • Using examples from the film The Overspent American, explain how the dominant culture in American society can be considered a consumer culture. What beliefs, values, norms, and symbols support a consumer culture and how? What role does the mass media play in a consumer culture and how does the mass media socialize us into social categories of difference like gender & race/ethnicity?

Lecture Five American Culture: Consumer Culture

What is Culture? • Culture is the lens through which we see the world • Gives shape and meaning to our daily lives • Culture is a social process – we create and recreate culture • Culture is shared, learned, taken for granted, symbolic, and it varies across time and place

Material and Non-material Culture • Material Culture (or material goods) • The material objects we create are usually the first indicators of cultural differences • Non-material culture • Beliefs – the truth of it all • Values – the right and wrong • Norms – the rules • Rituals – practice and reaffirmation • Language – the heart of it all

US Dominant Culture: Consumer Culture • The dominant culture in American society today is the consumer culture • A consumer culture in one in which we define ourselves and our value in society in terms of goods we purchase • Consumer culture both unifies us and differentiates us from one another • It unifies us because we all participate in it • It differentiated us because sub-cultures are reflected in our visible consumption

The Ritual of Shopping • In a consumer society consumption is a process by which we reflect our values, beliefs, and norms. • Shopping today has become a cultural ritual • Can you think of any shopping rituals?

The Functions of Consumption • In a consumer society consumption has both manifest and latent functions (refer to pg 19 in Introductions) • A manifest function is an intended or expressed outcome • The manifest function of goods is the intended purpose • A latent function is an unintended or unexpressed outcome • The latent function of goods is the one that gains meaning only in the social context and social interaction

Conspicuous Consumption • According to the sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class “conspicuous consumption is…a heightening or reaffirmation of social status.” • Products that are visible to others are the ones that we tend to buy with latent functions in mind

Let’s look at some products and think about the manifest and latent functions…

Cadillac Escalade SUV • What are the Manifest and Latent Functions?

What are the Manifest and Latent Functions? Chanel Lipstick

Apple iPod • What are the Manifest and Latent Functions?

Overspent American By Juliet Schor

Overspent American • Consumption Competition: the process by which we consume goods to demonstrate our status to others • Schor says in consumption competition we focus on visible goods and primarily what she calls the “Big Three”: • The house we live in • The car we drive • The clothes we wear

Symbols of Consumer Culture • Brands act as symbols of social status in consumption competition • If you look around you on any given day you can see how ubiquitous brands have become in our society – they are on everything and everywhere • Research has shown that brands are powerful reflectors of latent functions

Role of Mass Media • Mass Media plays a central role in the consumer culture • Increases the symbolicvalue of “Brands” through advertising that associates latent functions with brands • Stretches our reference groups, whereby we feel we are competing with the people on TV (TV shows like “MTV Cribs” is a good example) and not just our neighbors • How much influence does mass media have? • Adults see an average of 2000 advertisements a day • Children see an average of 40,000 commercials a year • We use 6.5 hours of mass media a day

Our Consumption, Our Values • If we are consuming goods today to gain and reflect social status in society today, what values & beliefs are reflected in our consumption of material culture? • The stimulus package that was just passed is focused on increasing consumption behavior in our society. Do we need a consumer culture to support and economy based on consumption?

Socialized into a Consumer Culture • Socialization: the lifelong process of socialinteraction through which individuals acquire self identity and the social skills needed for survival in society • Socialization is central to society, without learning the culture of a society we could not get along in that society • However, when we act based on our cultural ideas, values, and beliefs we recreate that society

Consumer Society

Mass Media and Socialization • There are many agents of socialization in our society today –family, school, peer groups – but one of the most powerful socializing agents today is the mass media and, more specifically, advertising • We live in an “advertising environment” • Ads occupy a vast cultural space in our lives and are present in virtually all social contexts from the labels visible on our clothes to the ads on TV

Advertisements and Socialization • The goal of advertising is to sell products and one of the ways advertising does this is to associate latent functions with the products advertised • Often ads tell us we lack something the is socially valued, but we can have it we buy the product advertised

Representations of Social Life • The sociologists Erving Goffman says that presentations of social interaction – such as those in advertisements and TV - are equally important in the socialization process as actual events and social interaction • Models are posed so that when we see their ads we interpret them as we would glimpses of social behavior

Goffman: Gender Advertisements • In a study conducted by Goffman he examined what advertisements in general tell us about gender in our society • What he found is 5 categories of “symbolic representations of behavior” for gender • Functional ranking – men are presented as more functional and active • Relative size – men are larger and take up more of the frame in the ads • Ritualization of subordination – women are often in positions of subordination to men • The Feminine Touch – women are seen as delicate and fragile • Family – women are associated with children and family

What do Ads today tell us about gender? • Look at the following advertisements and see if you can find any of Goffman’s five “symbolic representations of behavior” • As socializing agents, what do advertisements today tell us about what it means to be a man or woman?

Magazine Ads and Gender

What is the focus?

Watch the following Ads on You Tube • Coors “Wingman” • http://youtube.com/watch?v=POiA8BJ9Psc • Heineken Keg • http://youtube.com/watch?v=l-NfrBgYIEQ

Are We Prisoners of Socialization? • Socialization is powerful, but we have a ‘self’ • We are unique individuals and we are actively involved in the construction our own identities • We can examine and find common cultural message about what it means to be valued in American society, but as individuals we can (and do) chose to accept or reject those cultural ideas • This is how cultural change happens – we recreate culture when we start to redefine our values, beliefs, and norms • Society shapes individuals…but we also shape society

Extra Credit Assignment (10 points)