| dc.description.abstract | The ideas and messages we as image makers communicate have a potential
to reach millions of people, and as professionals we need to be aware of
both the positive and negative consequences of the work we do. What are
we as designers, photographers, and other creative professionals contributing
with our work? Are we educating, informing, or simply manipulating? Ideally,
ethics, education, and a certain sense of responsibility are integrated into
each of our endeavors, but those things are often neglected for the sake of
personal gain and prestige, and the goals of a client.
Everyday, no matter where we turn, advertisements encourage us to buy, buy,
buy. They create an artificial ideal of what we need in order to be happy,
deliberately and systematically preying upon our hopes and fears for another
dollar. We as a society have become so accustomed to these messages that
we no longer question them. As the art director George Lois once said,
"...advertising is a twentieth century love potion; it arouses wants beyond
means, it invites extreme consumption, it conjures a material paradise as
life's goal."(Lois and Pitts, p. 324) Wants and needs have become indecipherable as a result of advertising, which manipulates us into believing that
success is defined by the number of things we own, the names they bear,
and how expensive they are. But what price are we paying for accepting
these notions?
A consequence of this materialistic, self-indulgent lifestyle is consumerism,
a social and economic practice that embraces the idea that there is never
enough. It reflects not only a desire to possess things, but also a disregard
for the true need, durability, and origins of goods and services. The global
ramifications of manufacturing, buying, using, and disposing of these things,
such as pollution, energy use, and social injustice, are essentially ignored in
our culture for the sake of having what we want.
Credit cards contribute greatly to consumerism because they not only allow
us to buy all those wonderful things we don't need with money we don't
have, they encourage it. Personal debt in this country has been growing
exponentially in the last few decades because of increased credit card use,
and the economy is reaching a breaking point as a result. Efforts are being
made to reverse the trend in the media and even in Congress, where legislation has recently been considered.
This thesis examines how advertising, design, and credit cards perpetuate
over-consumption within our society, and is meant to encourage people to
think twice about their own spending habits. In addition, this thesis questions
those who help perpetuate consumerism in our society as professionals, and
encourages them to think twice about their own role in the cycle. | en_US |
