Preview

Taste Culture Vs American Culture

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1015 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Taste Culture Vs American Culture
“Rather than unreflexively adopting a lifestyle, through tradition or habit, the new heroes of consumer culture make lifestyle a life project and display their individuality and sense of style in the particularity of the assemblage of goods, clothes, practices, experiences, appearance and bodily dispositions they design together into a lifestyle.” Pg 35.
Growing up as a teenager, brands made a huge impact on I felt about myself and others. I thought that kids who had cooler brands than me had a higher status than I did. I also believed that kids with clothes that weren’t as cool as mine were underneath me and I didn’t want to associate myself with those kids because I felt like they would bring me down. Looking back I see that this is a superficial
…show more content…
I believe that your social and economic class influences your taste and dislikes but there is a grey area in today’s culture. I disagree with the fact that there is a great difference because with social media people have found a way to experience other cultures and ideas without having to leave their homes. I have seen a lot of videos of social media where I would see kids with more money gravitate to trends and crazes of lower classes because they think it’s cool. Social media has the power in educate and open someone’s mind to information that would have never discovered without …show more content…
As a kid I never understood why the kids who grew up in the worst parts of town had the nicest clothes. I went to a friend’s house who had all of the coolest clothes but yet her home looked so bad that she didn’t even have linen on the mattress. As I got older I realized that a lot of people are more concerned with appearing wealthy that they are willing to sacrifice their personal comfort to splurge on the latest shoe and trends. “And as American society becomes more and more split into two classes, one that is increasingly wealthy and one that is increasingly poor, the social tensions and possibilities for serious class conflict becomes stronger. People can retreat to gated communities to avoid crime, but they end up prisoners of those communities. My point, then, is that advertising often distracts us from paying attention to the need for social investments, from a concern for the public sphere, and thus, by its nature, tends to be politically conservative.” Pg

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jack Solomon

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Now in the twenty first century, there are many advertisers trying to get you to buy their product. They use a variety of ways to show us how good the product is. Some of those ways are marketing through different social media websites, billboards, television, and magazines. There are some people who may not care as much about all of the benefits of the products offered but only care about the current fashion trend or the latest technology devise. The advertisers try to capture our attention on the product that we want to buy and some of them try to get different classes of people to buy their product. Therefore, the contradiction between populism and elitism is still apparent in American advertising and media because many consumers still depend on the image not the significance of the product. Many people fear not fitting in if they don’t follow the current fashion trend. Most Americans have the desire to have the best of the best of things such as social success, materialistic possessions, and wealth.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But now that there are stores like Old Navy and Ikea, the thought of how "cool" someone is based on their appearance has almost vanished. People are starting to step into the realization that every outfit worn or every cool shirt advertised by movie stars or their favorite basketball player in the league will not be an…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great War had ended, leaving Europe in ruins but America had been spared physically from the damage the war had caused allowing America’s economy to boom like never-before. Between 1923 and 1929 the average income rose 11 percent. This new prosperity gave way to new luxuries like radios, affordable cars, refrigerators, and electric lights. Consumer culture boomed due in part to new styles to advertisers use to advertise their products. Ads became more colorful and persuasive and appealed to people’s emotions. Gone were the days of plainly stating the product, now ads promised fun and freedom. A common phrase in the business was “Sell them their dreams.”…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1950s Advertising

    • 2521 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Most of us don’t realize how often we really are influenced by advertising or marketing. We wake up, turn the television on, and begin our day. But how would life be if we didn’t have constant commercials or ads blaring at us day in and day out? What if we took it all away from the beginning? Advertising, as a means of production, is used to “announce or praise in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use it.” However, what is it really used for? We have always been a dignified nation, establishing ourselves as one of the top leaders. But as we grew in strength, our image rapidly changed. The United States has always been a desired place by many; but what made that so? Was it because our Presidents and government were the best? Or was it the land that glorified the nations look? No matter when, the United State has done it’s part to make the nation look great. But why has our image always been so important? I believe it fair to say that advertising is the main culprit. While its intention to create an immediate desired reaction on the consumer was qualified at the beginning, it has evolved into identifying the underlying differences of should and should not. The ethics have been stretched and pulled, just so advertisers could target people properly, by creating an image of “lesser than” unless their product was consumed. The nation as a whole has always remained strong, however individual images have been altered. Despite the glorifying and prosperous look of the nation during the 1920’s, 1930’s, and 1940’s, advertising poorly influenced the nation because it created very materialistic lifestyles, it forced people to buy what they did not need, and it lured people into having false hopes.…

    • 2521 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Consumer Culture plays a significant role in our everyday lives. The articles In Praise of Consumerism and Needing The Unnecessary; The Democratization of Luxury by James Twitchell show strong arguments in favour of consumer culture. Both articles focus on how important consumerism has become in the modern commercial world and how more people wealthy or middle class are buying luxury items to be accepted by others in society. People in today 's society who buy luxury items find it "arousal seeking" and it is believed that consumerism will soon be the new world culture. These two articles show similar views on consumerism and hold valid information in favour of consumer culture. Korten shows that the transition from an Empire to Earth Community…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the case of Adidas Yeezy example, people should think about why Yeezy series will be so popular. The products are popular because of its unique design or people just to purchase this product to show their wealthiness and social status. There are wide population out there “by using status goods as symbols, individuals communicate meaning about themselves to their reference groups. Many consumers purchase luxury goods primarily to satisfy an appetite for symbolic meanings” (Melika, Muris, 234). Most of the time, these people just understand the shallow meaning of luxury products, however, they are not aware of the brand’s history, product materials or what designers would like to express through these products. Because the cultural and value system difference, most consumers who come from Asia do not care about the deeper meaning that hides underneath of luxury brands. As Wong and Ahuvia state that “southeast Asians pay a great deal of attention to possessions that are both public and visible, such as designer-labeled goods, expensive cars, jewelry, etc. but this apparent materialism may or may not reflect internal personal tastes, traits, or goals” (Wong and Ahuvia, 437). So for people who comes from the Eastern part of the world, purchasing luxury products is the sign of showing social status. Even though culture differences leads people purchase luxury products because of the brand names, most of the luxury products do have adequate qualities, and its design will not easily go out of style. However, in the recent year, some luxury brands’ reputation has gone down because those brands were shifting their factories to other countries and then shipping back to Italy just for the label. Technically, the phrase “Made in Italy” is not really manufactured in Italy…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book argues that late-twentieth-century consumer culture will become a world in which simulations of reality have become more real than reality itself, or “hyper-real” as Baudrillard calls it. Baudrillard argues that consumer culture has evolved from representations of things that in reality exist to stimulate us (Baudrillard). Objects and even activities may look like something, but they are really more of a reference to it. For example, we no longer walk and run the way they did in pre-modern societies. We now have means of transportation to replace walking and we do not chase after prey or run from danger as pre-modern civilizations had to. Instead, we jog recreationally. Jogging stimulates running in pre-modern times, but rather than being used for survival and protection, it is used for exercise. We also no longer rely on local produce as a food source. Instead of growing and consuming food we grew ourselves, we have “health food” that replicates the pre-modern peasant’s diet…

    • 1137 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    A number of facets in Urban Outfitter’s customer-inspired product range position the brand ahead of competitors in the eyes of the target consumer (Hackley, 2009). Firstly, the brand operates as much more than just a retailer of apparel - it markets lifestyle merchandise; clothes, accessories, art, music, home décor, and culture. Thus it offers a fresh, alternative lifestyle image to its distinct target consumers, who actively strive towards social psychology concepts of social differentiation and…

    • 2094 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Do Objects Make Us

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Stores such as Old Navy and Gap often pressure and persuade teens to feel the need to purchase “the next big thing” in order for them to be viewed as “cool” by the rest of the society. Teens in today's…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social class has also shaped youths’ dress code as a cultural practice among youths all over the globe. Most youths may prefer given type of attire depending on the fashion of interest, however, their social classes, relating to their economic status, practically determines what they have on. For instance, it is common to identify youths from upper class with expensive nice looking attires, while those from low class are capable of purchasing the second hand cloth.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “They have no central leadership, no master plan, no fixed structures, and no self-representation as a single entity. Their actions as a group are the result of local contacts and temporary synchronizations. These forms of collective performances are responsible for numerous ongoing cultural, social, and political transformations.” (Fischer-Lichte, 2009:1)…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Where I'M from

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Where I'm from, my peers drive "phat" rides, wear "sick" clothes, and live behind the walls of classy culture. They run in packs of pride, circling the deprived like they need to control all avenues of trend.…

    • 323 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vouch for Versace

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    ‘’ Young people spend too much money on clothes and are too often influenced by brands and designer labels’’…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Populism and Elitism

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Now in the twenty first century, there are many advertisers trying to get you to buy their product. They use a variety of ways to show us how good the product is. There are some people who may not care much the benefit of the product but they just only care about the fashion trend or the latest technology. The advertisers try to capture our attention on the product that we want to buy and some of them try to get different classes of people to buy their product. Therefore, the contradiction between populism and elitism is still apparent in American advertising and media because many consumers are still depend on the image and the significance of the product.…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The chapter titled “The Corporate Politics of Sign Values” by Goldman and Papson (1996) and the chapter titled “Media in the Mediated Marketplace” by Leiss et al. (2005) both discuss how corporations and their advertising agencies attempt to better target consumers and sustain their interest toward advertisements. Goldman and Papson discuss how “corporate advertising” (1996: 216) and “legitimation ads” (1996: pg. 217) are used for this purpose while Leiss et al. (2005) discuss how various media and media institutions also work towards this purpose. Although the authors appear to focus on different items, the following themes are embedded within both their discussions: consumer appeal, niche markets, technology, and globalization (Goldman and Papson, 1996; Leiss et al., 2005). This essay compares the two chapters in their exploration of these themes and will conclude with my verdict on which chapter I believe makes a stronger case. Goldman and Papson begin by defining corporate advertising “as a catchall category that includes image advertising, identity advertising, and advocacy or issue advertising” (1996: 217). They then define legitimation ads as a “[subset] of corporate advertising [working to legitimize] corporate economic and political power [through their emphasis on] the social benefits of private profits…” (1996: 217). The authors explain that corporate advertising and legitimation ads collectively work to forge a meaningful, positive relationship between corporations and socially significant issues in order to project a positive, responsible, and trustworthy image for corporations that will better appeal to consumers (Goldman and Papson, 1996). For instance, legitimation ads may promote capitalist interests by hailing consumers as hard-working, patriotic citizens of America or incorporate themes of…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays