“Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever-increasing rate” - U.S. retail analyst Victor Lebow, 1955 (131, Naiman). Shopping malls like the Eaton centre were designed to make profit and entice its shoppers. It is a place where community, comfort and capitalism come together. Its purpose is to keep consumers in the mall for as long as they can, because the longer shoppers stay the more they spend. The Eaton Centre is a cathedral of consumption, which was built to fulfill the needs of
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While moving about in the Eaton Centre you are bombarded with advertisements while passing by stores. These advertisements deal with the concept of white privilege because all the individuals in the ads consisted of white individuals, in order to lure consumers into their store. Since the Eaton Centre is located in the heart of downtown Toronto, a large portion of its shoppers is multicultural. In many of the books I’ve read throughout my life, the color white was associated to the concepts of light, goodness and innocence. In contrast, the color black was used to depict concepts such as fear, death, and evil. Thus it is possible, store owners may use white individuals as models advertisings their items over someone who has colored skin for the reason stated above. Additionally, the advertisements in stores had models appear as “perfect” in today's society, meaning they were good looking, young, and appeared as members of the upper class. There were no advertisements of individuals we would see in our everyday lives, members of the middle …show more content…
“While the term ‘consumer society’ is often used to describe a broad set of historical changes that have given a new prominence to consumption within modern social life as a whole , it typically retains a critical charge, implying there is something fundamentally problematic about a way of life in which individuals derive their primary sense of meaning, satisfaction, and selfhood from the purchase and use of commodities.” (205, Soron). It is in human nature to pursue things that bring them happiness. The media seduces us with their numerous advertisements, causing us to crave purchasing the goods shown, making us believe it will bring us happiness. Once you buy one of these goods, you only come into possession of short term happiness, because in a limited period of time there will be a newer model available. An illustration of this, is the iPhone. Apple, the corporation that brings us the iPhone, releases a new model partnered with a new software update every year. Once you purchase an iPhone, and a few software updates later your iPhone will be outdated, as it will not be able to run any new apps installed from the app store. This is known as planned
While moving about in the Eaton Centre you are bombarded with advertisements while passing by stores. These advertisements deal with the concept of white privilege because all the individuals in the ads consisted of white individuals, in order to lure consumers into their store. Since the Eaton Centre is located in the heart of downtown Toronto, a large portion of its shoppers is multicultural. In many of the books I’ve read throughout my life, the color white was associated to the concepts of light, goodness and innocence. In contrast, the color black was used to depict concepts such as fear, death, and evil. Thus it is possible, store owners may use white individuals as models advertisings their items over someone who has colored skin for the reason stated above. Additionally, the advertisements in stores had models appear as “perfect” in today's society, meaning they were good looking, young, and appeared as members of the upper class. There were no advertisements of individuals we would see in our everyday lives, members of the middle …show more content…
“While the term ‘consumer society’ is often used to describe a broad set of historical changes that have given a new prominence to consumption within modern social life as a whole , it typically retains a critical charge, implying there is something fundamentally problematic about a way of life in which individuals derive their primary sense of meaning, satisfaction, and selfhood from the purchase and use of commodities.” (205, Soron). It is in human nature to pursue things that bring them happiness. The media seduces us with their numerous advertisements, causing us to crave purchasing the goods shown, making us believe it will bring us happiness. Once you buy one of these goods, you only come into possession of short term happiness, because in a limited period of time there will be a newer model available. An illustration of this, is the iPhone. Apple, the corporation that brings us the iPhone, releases a new model partnered with a new software update every year. Once you purchase an iPhone, and a few software updates later your iPhone will be outdated, as it will not be able to run any new apps installed from the app store. This is known as planned