Thorstein Veblen is credited with inventing the concept of consumerism in the late 19th century as people had more disposable income and free time during the Industrial Revolution. Advertisers exploited this by conditioning people to desire and consume goods they didn't truly need. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley depicts a dystopian future where consumerism is taken to an extreme and people are programmed from birth to constantly consume transport, entertainment, clothing and other products rather than repairing or reusing items. The author uses this critique to argue that excessive consumerism conditions people unnaturally and is not a sustainable foundation for a society.

1. CONSUMERISM AND
BRAVE NEW WORLD
EMILIO ZURITA
SANTIAGO GARDUÑO
ALE GALLEGOS

2. OBJECTIVE:TRACETHE ORIGINS OF
CONSUMERISM AND UNDERSTAND ITS
RELEVANCE IN BRAVE NEW WORLD.

3. WHAT IS CONSUMERISM?
• The belief that´s good for
people to spend a lot of
money on good or services.

4. WHO INVENTED
CONSUMERISM?
• Thorstein BundeVeblen
(1857–1929)
• He was the first one to
present examples of
consumerism in a variety of
his work.

5. HOW WAS CONSUMERISM
INVENTED?
• When people started having
spare time and money during
the industrial revolution,
advertising companies started
leading people to believe that
they needed things that they
didn’t really need.Therefore,
people started spending their
money on these, and craving
them even more.

6. WHEN WAS CONSUMERISM
INVENTED?
• From about 1750. Around
the time of the industrial
revolution.

7. WHY WAS CONSUMERISM
INVENTED?
• It wasn’t purposefully
invented, but the idea of
exploiting people’s desires
for things was what gave it a
purpose.And that is how it
was invented.

8. WHERE WAS CONSUMERISM
INVENTED?
• It was not in a specific place,
but since it was closely
related to the industrial
revolution, we think it
started in England.

9. EXAMPLES OF CONSUMERISM
IN BRAVE NEW WORLD
• 1. Page 22 Line 4
• 2. Page 30 Line 3
• 3. Page 49 Line 5

10. EXAMPLE 1
• “The idea was to make them want to be going out into the
country at every available opportunity, and so compel them to
consume transport”
• This talks about how people were conditioned to have specific
desires that led them to consume.Without these programmed
desires, they never would have had the need to consume that
particular thing.

11. EXAMPLE 2
• “Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games
witch do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness.”
• Children playing is an extremely common and natural thing.
Therefore, it is a great opportunity to oblige them to consume.
For this to work, children cannot know that they can play just as
easily without purchasing intricate apparatus.

12. EXAMPLE 3
• “I do love having new clothes.”
• “Old clothes are beastly, we always throw away old clothes.”
• “Ending is better than mending.The most stitches, the less riches.”
• Here, babies are being conditioned, with the core belief that when
something breaks or simply gets old, it is better to get a new one
entirely than to restore it.This way, there is guarantee that people
will consume way more than necessary.

13. MESSAGE FROMTHE AUTHOR
• The book shows a clearly
disturbing society, and that
society values consumerism
above almost anything. In fact,
it conditions people for
extreme consumption. Since
such a negative situation
shows such favor towards
consumerism, the author must
have been against it.To him,
excessive consumerism is part
of a dystopian society.

14. CONCLUSION
• We think that people are getting
use to buying things they don´t
really need but only want.
Consumerism is not 100% bad
in our opinion, because it
impulses the economy and
plenty of jobs come from that.
However, it is too easy to get
confused about what you really
want, and what you need.We
agree with the idea that
excessive consumerism is
dangerous.