The Men Who Made Us Spend. BBC 2, 9.10pm

The Men Who Made Us Spend. BBC 2, 9.10pm.

 

This is a three-part series directed, written and presented by investigative journalist Jacques Peretti.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01zxmrv/the-men-who-made-us-spend-episode-1

 

In the first episode he looked at how monopoly capital makes it’s own rules. He gave the example of electric bulb makers in pre-Hitler Germany which sounded like an elder of Zion conspiracy theory only for the paperwork to prove that they did indeed get together to fix the price bulbs would be sold at and at the same time halved the life span of the existing bulbs and doubled their profits. Built-in obsolescence is not something that rolls off the production line. Upgrades -cars, washing machines, phones, computers- replacement parts, that’s for losers. Buy new. Sound familiar?

 

In the second episode Peretti looks at the psychology of the seller and the buyer. Reductionism suggest that the fear factor is the best seller man has made.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04bwhkg/the-men-who-made-us-spend-episode-2#group=p021bvv4

 

Health and wealth are inextricably linked. Peritti’s examination of the health care boom and the rap-artist 50 Cent’s movement into the bottled-water industry is a case-study in mass stupidity. Give water a fancy name. Highlight the spurious links between trace elements and health. Sell it as a health drink and charge the consumer more. That couldn’t work, could it? Coke bought his company and made a rich man even richer. That’s the same Coke that was slated last year for using London-tap water to sell us consumers back water they have zapped with their magical ingredient of water. One of my bugbears is people in Scotland that buy bottled water. They say things like you don’t know what’s in tap water. Yes, I do, water from places like Loch Katrine the freshest cleanest water that money can’t buy. But if you want to buy water go right ahead. Please, though, do me a favour and watch this programme. Then tell me, a programme that is first shown on BBC 4 is much better when it is shown on BBC 1.

 

In the third and final episode Peretti shows us how sad we’ve actually become. It’s not big-government that has reduced us to children, it’s the multinational companies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01zxnk9/the-men-who-made-us-spend-episode-3

Peretti traces this movement back to George Lucas and Star Wars, a western in space in which there are good guys and bad guys. Government regulation of any kind is the bad guy. The good guys are these multinationals that want to sell us products that we really need but just don’t know it yet. First they targeted kids. They’re simple sorts. Gullible and pliable. Eat more of this and you’ll be like HeMan. Drink this and you’ll get the pretty princess. Wear this and people will like you. Wear that and people will know you’re poor (and probably on benefits). Marketers noticed that the same principles of instant gratification and linking them with a particular product could also be applied to adults. Buy the latest upgrade on your IPhone or you’ll be left behind. There’s nothing new in any of what Paretti says but the way it is packaged, and the points he makes, should makes us - if not weep - think about what we’re doing to this world and for who and what reasons. Right, that’s it, I’m off to McDonalds. No food waste. I’ll finish my bugher.  

Hard sell myself: http://unbound.co.uk/books/lily-poole

 

Comments

Interesting review, CM. I like to think I'm fairly fear-proof regarding consumer suckerism, though it probably slimes through my pores subliminally. When I was at school our economics teacher told us there were dozens of washing-powder brands in the shops and millions spent on TV ads. However almost all of them are made by two giants Unilever and Proctor and Gamble. These days if we want to spend more money and feel eco-righteous we can choose Ecover but I don't think it has much active ingredient.

an oligopoly of banks. an oligopoly of Energy supplies. The list goes on. I wish is was only washing powder Elsie. We're in it so most folk, including myself, are not immune to the buying bug. 

 

We're saturated in it.I don't see how we can peel ourselves away from it.

 

I've added a link to my book so you can feel morally superior but still support the economy.