Power of the Mind vs Power of the Wallet

Research Questions
The average human is targeted by 3000 marketing messages daily. What influence does this have on the consumers?

Research Questions
The market can only survive through spending of capital on goods. But what is the market?

Research Questions
What determines the selectiveness of consumers in regards to the messages they act on and the messages they are against?

Research Questions
Can some consumers can see through the propaganda crafted by PR and Marketing whilst other can't?

Thesis
Tensions of late modernity (such as the identity as a process) lead to anti-consumerists using cynicism as a form of resistance to the capitalist consumerism.

Thesis
PR and Marketing incorporate cynicism in their promotional tactics, therefore developing more sophisticated adverts, convincing the cynical conformist that they chose what to buy or not to buy. This has the potential to blur the line between the two types of consumer (the classic consumerist and the cynical one) and increase companies profits.

What is Capitalism?
The Marxist view (which opposes Capitalism) : the capitalists (owners of the means of production) exploit workers by depriving them of value that workers themselves create.

Ideological Mystification of Capitalism

Jameson (1994) claims that: it seems easier to imagine the end of the world, than a far more pragmatic change in the mode of production.

Ideological Mystification
The capitalist ideology has captivated us so much that we rarely question it. It has become the REAL that cannot be stopped even by an ecological catastrophe. Most criticised aspect of capitalist doctrine: CONSUMERISM

The Postmodern Individual

Adorno (1944) an individual only experiences himself as socially mediated and fetishizes manmade institutions.

Reification
Bewes (2002) describes reification as a conversion of abstract concepts into something concrete. The best example is THE MARKET (inexistent in itself, yet such a pressing reality in todays economy) A market The Market

Resistance to Capitalism
An ideology is destined to convince us of its truth, yet actually serving some unavowed particular power interest. (Zizek, 1994) Activists, usually radical ones claim that capitalism is a lie as an ideology.

Anticonsumerism
The anticonsumerist & the cynical conformist have realised that cultural capital and status (class) as defined in the consumerist society is merely a mechanism to drive sales.

Ideological Demystification
Zizek (2009)
Ideological mystification or the Blind consumer
Consumerism as belongingness to a class Object (mass produced) precedes subject 2 axioms: - Egalitarian : radical or the Anticonsumerist - Moderate: the Cynical conformist

Demystification or the Knowledgeable consumer

Identity as a Process
DuGay (1996) : identity changes from inflexible (based on family/religion) to a state of process.

What is it made of?

Bourdieu (1986) : cultural capital concept it assigns any object, manner of speech or style to a social class or subculture of people

Can we then assume that

Given sufficient fungibles, one can believe they attain status through purchasing huge amounts of cultural capital, therefore gaining status.

Just a Song?
All I know Is everything is not as it's sold But the more I grow the less I know And I have lived so many lives Though I'm not old And the more I see, the less I grow The fewer the seeds the more I sow

The pains of a pragmatic cynical conformist

Anticonsumerism in its Incipient Stage

French revolutionists called Situationists (Situs) intuited how hard it would be to hang on to ones core self in a world of manufactured desires and manipulated emotions.

Radical Anticonsumerism
AdBusters, the media activists who aim to eradicate consumer capitalism Buy Nothing Day Credit Card Cut Up

Cynical Conformists: Hipsters

Hipsters = an ironic pastiche (combine cultures that arent theirs, in an ironic manner)

Lumberjack outfit (never seen an axe in his life) Works as part-time bartender Listens to country music and rap at the same time

Hipsters
Hipsters enjoy things ironically, not effusively, oozing smugness and arrogance, which irritates people around.

From Cynicism to Kynicism

Kynicism a playfulness that blurs the lines between the cynical and a cynicism about cynicism (Sloterdijk,1987)

Kynicism is expressed through parodical overidentification, which applies to hipsters.

Parodical Overidentification: Hipsters

Kynicisms impact
PRO: Kynicism reinvigorates discussions that have been numbed by repetition Murtola (2012) The cynical conformist is having fun ridiculing the typical consumer

Kynicisms impact
The example of Reverend Billy

Kynicisms impact
CONS: If a trend is too inherent to the wide majority of people, the movements against it can only reinforce the trend.

Kynicisms impact
Resistance to capitalism resembles a talk show where everyone shouts out their own justification without ever managing to affect the injustice and lack of freedom existing in the free world. (Bauman, 2004)

Medias Susceptibility
Hipsters = already a trend. Most of people can either identify him/herself as a hipster or a hater of hipsters.

Medias Susceptibility
Brands use the ironic image created by hipsters to create new, attractive campaigns/ads

Medias Susceptibility
Featured in the media and targeted by brands, the hipster movement becomes a way to increase profits and promote consumerism.

Incorporating Resistance: Che Guevara

Incorporating Resistance: Hipsters

How Cynical Consumerism helps PR and Advertising

Movements like the hipsters cynical conformism quench PR and Advertisings thirst for promotion opportunities. It has in fact helped the hyper saturated media move from a repetitiveness to a new sophisticated way of promoting, which has become quite cynical as well.

Possible Solution
Once you start trusting yourself and relating to the world as an empowered human being instead of a hapless consumer drone, something remarkable happens. Your cynicism dissolves.
Kalle Lasn(1999), founder of AdBusters

Conclusion
I believe Lasns view is closer to demonstrating my thesis, that media does incorporate cynicism (or its more advanced form, namely kynicism) in their promotional tactics, therefore eradicating it as a tactic of resistance against consumer capitalism.