This document discusses how consumer desires are shaped and fueled. It notes that consumerism is consciously manipulated through marketing to influence mass habits and opinions. Desire is described as wishing for symbolic representations found in products rather than true satisfaction from ownership. Psychoanalysis suggests people try to fulfill emotional needs through consumption. Marketers create desire by linking products to displaced meanings, so acquiring objects threatens those meanings and fuels wanting more. Ultimately, desire itself is pursued through imaginings of products and consumer ideals co-shaped by marketers and individuals.

1. Your Brain on Money
bill@billcarney.org
@harlemhomeboy

2.
Your
imagina+on
and
you….
;)

3. Check
the
following
lists:
No+ce
anything?

4. Product
Air
Tap
Water
Rice
Sugar
Gasoline
(
regular
unleaded)
Can
of
Soda
Apples
House
(typical
suburban)
Television
(SONY
HDTV)
Car
(
Toyota
Camry
LE)
Fitness
machine
(
ellip+cal)
Wine
(decent
Shiraz)
Pet
Dog
(border
collie)
Chair
(Levenger)
Coffee
(
Starbucks
beans)
Beef
(
sirloin
steak)
US
retail
(ca.2008)
per
pound
net
weight
Free
0.0000633
0.29
0.34
0.7
0.8
1.6
2
6
7
7.5
9
10
11.7
12
12

5. Product
Book
(hardback)
US
retail
(ca.2008)
per
pound
net
weight
12.5
Bicycle
(Fuji)
Luxury
Car
(
Lexus
LS
660)
Blue
Jeans
(
Levi’s)
Chain
Saw
(Husquvarna)
Human
Blood
Combat
knife
(
Ka-­‐Bar)
Watch
(
Timex)
Laptop
Computer
(
Dell)
Silver
bullion
Telescope
(
TEC)
Bra
(
Victoria’s
secret)
Handgun
(
Glock)
17
20
22
37
45
103
167
204
225
238
240
440
Pivate
Jet(
Lear
Jet)
Music
CD
Perfume
(
Samsara)
460
480
930

6. Product
Ipod
Classic
(
w/o
songs)
US
retail
(ca.2008)
per
pound
net
weight
980
Fake
Columbia
U.
Diploma
Cell
Phone
(
Motorola)
Porn
DVD
Breast
Implants
Lips+ck
(
MAC)
Marijuana
$
20
bills
(
currency)
Luxury
Watch
(
Rolex)
Fake
Diamonds
(
Zirconia)
Gold
bullion
Human
kidney
(
black
market)
Cocaine
1,090
1,390
1,510
1,930
2,600
4,900
9,100
10,100
13,600
14,000
16,200
36,200
Human
semen
(
from
donor)
Viagra
Prozac
52,900
53,000
63,000

7. Product
Heroin
Ecstasy
Ipod
Classic
(
full
songs)
Botox
Injec+on
Real
Columbia
U.
Diploma
Real
Diamonds
Van
Gogh
pain+ng
LSD
(
pure
liquid)
Human
egg
(
from
donor)
US
retail
(ca.2008)
per
pound
net
weight
68,000
75,600
106,700
141,600
1.25
million
15
million
28
million
30
million
4.5
trillion
Source:
Geoffrey
Miller,
Spent,
2009
Loved
the
book!

8. Pleasure
is
profitable!

9. Your
Brain
on
Money
• Consumerism:
– “The
conscious
and
intelligent
manipula+on
of
the
organized
habits
and
opinions
of
the
masses
is
an
important
element
in
democra+c
society.
Those
who
manipulate
this
unseen
mechanism
of
society
cons+tute
an
invisible
government
which
is
the
true
ruling
power
of
our
country….”
Edward
Bernays,
Propaganda,
1928
Consultant
to
P&G,
Car+er,
GE,
and
helped
United
Fruit
Company
(Chiquita)
overthrow
the
Government
of
Guatemala

10. Your
Brain
on
Money
• Consumers
are
said
to
never
be
fully
sa+sfied
with
their
purchases.
Dreaming
of
owning
the
appears
to
be
more
pleasurable
than
owning
Campbell
1987
•
Desire
equals
specific
wishes
inflamed
by
imagina+on,
fantasy
and
longing
for
transcendent
pleasure.
Belk
et
al.
•
It
is
the
symbolic
value
of
objects
which
we
desire
and
what
they
represent
about
us.
Belk
2003

11. Your
Brain
on
Money
•
Psychoanalysis
suggests
that
we
try
and
sa+sfy
our
emo+onal
desires
through
consump+on
•
Desire
is
interwoven
with
daydreaming,
and
a
consump+on
dream
is
the
mental
representa+on
of
objects
that
consumers
desire
and
or
experiences
they
would
like
to
realize.
These
daydreams
intensify
desire.

12. What
Fuels
Desire
•
We
do
not
so
much
seek
sa+sfac+on
from
products,
as
pleasure
from
the
illusory
experiences
which
they
construct
from
their
associated
meanings
Campbell
1987
•
Desire
is
created
by
goods
ac+ng
as
bridges
between
would-­‐be
buyers
and
displaced
meaning.
Once
the
bridge
is
acquired,
this
threatens
the
displaced
meaning
leading
to
desire
for
another
object.
McCracken
1988

13. What
Fuels
Desire
•
To
desire
is
to
be
alive.
It
is
to
hope
and
to
imagine.
The
imagery
of
objects
is
co-­‐shaped
both
by
marketers
and
our
own
consumer
ideologies.
Therefore
our
behavior
is
perhaps
berer
characterized
as
not
just
the
pursuit
of
desired
objects,
but
the
pursuit
of
desire
itself
Belk
2003

14. No.
1
• “one
is
that
above
average
products
can
compensate
for
below-­‐average
traits
when
one
is
trying
to
build
serious,
long
term
rela+onships..”

16. No.
2
•
The
other
idea
“that
consumerism
promotes
is
that
products
offer
cooler,
more
impressive
ways
to
display
our
desirable
traits
than
any
natural
behavior
could
provide.”
Really?

17. Uhhh….are
you
sure
about
that?

18. Your
Brain
on
Money
• Narcissism
– Selfishness
– Arrogance
– Excep+onalism
– Sense
of
en+tlement
– Admira+on
seeking
– Success
fantasizing
– Grandiosity
– Vic+m
mentality
– Emo+onal
instability
Source:
Diagnos+c
and
Sta+s+cal
Manual
of
Mental
Disorders
(Again,
love
this
book!)

19. The
Fundamental
Delusion:
Selling
the
Dream
• WILL
influence
people:
size,
shape,
age,
sex,
race,
familiarity,
relatedness,
arrac+veness
• Will
NOT
influence
people:
People
will
not
actually
no+ce
and
care
about
the
products
we
buy
and
display….
– Can
you
remember
anything
specific
about
what
your
boy/girlfriend
wore
yesterday?
Your
boss’s
watch?
The
face
of
the
last
Ferrari
driver
you
saw?

20. Selling
the
Dream
• “Fe+shiza+on”
of
youth
and
disregard
for
age
and
wisdom
• Material
clues
viewed
as
more
relevant
/
accurate
than
perspec+ve
gained
through
first
impressions
(experience)
• Provide
material
signals
of
Fitness
as
the
anthropologists
would
say

22. Conspicuous
Consump+on
• Luxury
goods
are
acquired
mainly
to
display
wealth,
not
to
increase
happiness
• High
price
is
a
benefit,
not
a
cost
• High
price
guarantees
the
product’s
reliability
as
an
indicator
of
the
possessors
wealth
and
taste
Thorsten
Veblen,
The
Theory
of
the
Leisure
Class,
1899

23. Conspicuous
Consump+on
• Conspicuous
Waste
• Conspicuous
Precision
(my
preciousss….)
• Conspicuous
Reputa+on

24. $2,755,000

26. SWEET
DREAMS,
MY
NEW
BFF!
;)