Against this backdrop, we are also beginning to see a backlash against omnipresent advertising that has fed much of Consumerism for so long. Even advertisers are beginning to recognise that over-consumption (or irresponsible consumption) is something that should not be encouraged.
In August 2008, the UK ATL teachers’ union warned that children are under excessive commercial pressure to be seen buying and wearing fashionable brands. The union’s general secretary, Dr. Mary Bousted, said that “children are suffering the consequences from advertising that targets youngsters. It is incredibly sad to hear how many youngsters are bullied or isolated for not having the same clothes or accessories as their classmates.”
Even advertisers are beginning to recognise that over-consumption is something that should not be encouraged.
Indeed, in a typical one-hour prime time US TV show there are 18 minutes of adverts and promotionxxiii. Unsurprisingly, a 2004 Yankelovich poll revealed that 65% of Americans felt “constantly bombarded with too much advertising and marketing”. The calls for controls on advertising to children and of fatty foods and alcohol, are a sign of manipulation fatigue.
As Clive Hamilton writes in Growth Fetish of the UK Code of Advertising Standards and Practice: “This states “No advertisement may misleadingly claim or imply that the product advertised, or an ingredient, has some special property or quality that is incapable of being established”. If governments were serious about this criterion of ethical behaviour, the advertising industry would effectively be abolished… It goes on to say adverts, “must not seek to exploit ignorance or to perpetuate popular misconceptions”…The social function of advertising is precisely to perpetuate the popular misconception that life satisfaction can be increased by way of consumption of material goods. Indeed, an advertising agency that failed to mislead potential Consumers into believing that they could derive enhanced personal qualities from a product would not be in business for long.”
Richard Reeves of the New Economics Foundation calls for government to control envy in society by measures such as drastically curbing advertising and starting to “Sketch a narrative of what progress looks like now that economics has done its bit.”
If regulations or fiscal disincentives are enforced to control or even stamp out unnecessary marketing and advertising, this will have huge implications for business models. This could presage a powerful anti-consumption backlash against frivolous and “affluenza”-inducing marketing of all kinds. A recent article in Campaign (Farewell to Consumerism, 10 July 2008), the advertising trade magazine, speculated that legislation could sound the death knell for consumption as we know it: “If [Consumers] go into shock and just stop consuming, a serious, long-term recession is likely.” The impact on the marketing industry could be fatal.
