The document discusses the rise of consumerism in the U.S. after World War I and how companies used psychology to market unnecessary products. It presents research showing people's vast knowledge of corporate logos compared to local plants. The author surveyed people and found a negative correlation between political knowledge and pop culture knowledge. Most surprisingly, many people did not know their own representative despite knowing corporate logos and the president. The conclusion is that democracy requires an educated and informed citizenry.

1. A look into The
Effects of
Consumerism and
Pop Culture on a
Democracy
By: Johnny Gagnon

2. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and
free in a state of civilization, it expects
what never was and never will be.”
–Thomas Jefferson (1816)

3. Since the dawn of man we as human‟s have
produced, hunted, and scavenged all that was essential to
life, and have done so in large part with little excess.
Until…

4. • During post World War I and right as the industrial
revolution was coming to an end, the American
corporations and manufacturers began a new
revolution. Selling things to people that they didn‟t
need.
• With the help of the growing new science
“psychology,” companies learn to market things to
people subliminally, rather than trying to convince
potential buyers with facts and reason.
• They do this by using the concept of the idea of
„self,‟ and that the clothes that one wears, and the
things that one owns, helps express who that
person is.

5. “A change has come over our
democracy. It is called
consumptionism. The American
citizens’ first importance to his
country is no longer that as
citizen, but now that of
consumer.”
-Samuel Strauss (American
Journalist published in Atlantic
Monthly 1924)

6. If the Empire State
Building
represented the
entire existence of
man, the age of
„consumerism‟
would only amount
to about 3” of the
building‟s 1454
feet, or about the
size of the aircraft
warning light on top
of the radio
antenna.

7. The “Shepard of
the Bewildered
Masses”
• Edward Bernays (1892-
1995, seen here to the left) was
the nephew of psycholgy‟s
foudning father Sigmund Freud.
He very well might be the most
influential man you never heard
of. He combined his Uncle‟s
theories with that of other
leading psychoanalysts to
create many of the marketing
tactics we still see today. He
used sex, power, and social
significance to help sell products
and ideas to the American
public.

8. • Edward Bernays believed the mass mind
was unreasonable. The “bewildered
masses,” as he called them, must be made
docile and distracted, and left to the rule of
a specialty class beyond locality. He
believed he could do this by “stimulating
their inner desires and then sating them
with consumer products.” He called it “the
engineering of consent.”

9. “Within the life of the generation now in control of
affairs, persuasion has become a self-conscious
art and a regular organ of popular government.
None of us begins to understand the
consequences, but it is no daring prophecy to say
that the knowledge of how to create consent will
alter every political calculation and modify every
political premise...It has been demonstrated that
we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the
accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with
the world beyond our reach.”
1922 Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann (1889-
1974, Pulitzer winning journalist)

10. My Mission Statement
• I believe that democracy can work, but in order for
it to function to its potential, education must be a
democracy’s first priority.
• I also believe that our freedom comes at a cost.
That cost is a civic duty to stay informed. The casual
citizen is a democracy’s worst enemy.
• My mission with this project is to look at the effects
of consumerism and pop culture, to see if there is a
correlation between excessive consumption and
those that are politically active and informed.

12. • If you do, it shouldn‟t be too much of a
surprise, because according to emarketer.com U.S.
companins spent 168 billion in advertising in 2010 alone.

13. • A study done by The
US National Wildlife
Foundation (as
referenced by
Treehugger.com)
Showed that children
at the age of 7 could
already identify 200
corporate logos, but
hardly any local
plants native to their
own community.
• Can you identify this
local Maine tree?

14. My Research
• I surveyed/quizzed 36 people on their political
affiliation, political knowledge, how much they spend in
excess, how well they know about Corporate
logos, products etc. and how well they know trivial facts
pertaining to “pop culture.‟
• The survey quiz was composed of the same 41 self made
questions that were presented in a random order.
Sometimes I administered the test in person, and many
volunteered to take the quiz on their own time via the
internet.
• http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-
school/story.php?title=cosumerism-democracy

15. Warning:
I want to be up front and admit that some of the questions
were meant to be tricky. My intentions were to try to
eliminate educated guessing. Some of the questions
deliberately have answers that were meant to lure
anyone who does not know for certain away from the
correct answer. I did it on both sides, with a few of the
corporate logos, as well as the few of the political
questions. I figured anyone who had extensive
knowledge about the subject would not be fooled by trick
answers. However I do want to upfront with this now, as it
probably had an effect on my results.

16. My Hypothesis
• That those who consume excessively will be less informed
about current events and politics.
• That there will be a negative correlation between
knowledge of pop culture and knowledge of politics.

17. My Results
• I came across many trends with my study. It is hard to say
that any of them are conclusive however, given the small
sample size and broad range of questions asked.
Nonetheless the results go along with other trends I found
when researching this project.
• I found that with my subjects there was a negative
correlation with political knowledge and knowledge of
pop culture. Albeit very minute difference (only about 10
overall points on average). I attribute this to the overall
difficulty of my quiz, which I think was low.
• I found that regardless of who they were, or what type of
consumers they were, the overall knowledge of company
products and corporate logos was vast.

18. My Results
• I found that those who claimed to be republican used Fox
News as a source of news. All of those who claimed to be
republican listed Fox News as the channel they watched
most when watching the news, and 0% of all other parties
and ideologies claim to use Fox News as a primary source.
• In addition, I found that those who claimed to be
republican were better at identifying politicians positions
and party affiliations. I also found that they answered
consistently with the same bias amongst each other on
less objective questions( e.g. “has the US ever lost a war?).
While those of all other party affiliations were inconsistent
when answering the same questions.

19. Demographic
democrats
Republicans
Independents/
Non Partisan
Other

20. $ Spent on Luxury Items Per Month
$0-$100
$101-200
$201-300
$301-400

21. Excessive Consumers Percentile Amongst the
Overall Group
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Overall % of Product Overall % of Political
Knowledge & Pop Knowledge
Cultrue

22. If They Have Ever Received
Government Money or Used A Social
Program Ever
No Yes
0% 0%
28%
72%

23. Government Assistance &
Social Programs
This was one that was meant to trick those who were not
well informed in politics already. However to my surprise I
tricked the majority. I will admit this question is vaguely
worded, and somewhat subjective. However I believe
the question was worded properly enough where not
one single person should have answered no, regardless
of their situation.
The way it was worded I feel as though government
assistance could be anything from
welfare, foodstamps, section 8, to
medicare, medicaid, social security, pel
grant, subsidized loans, earned income
credit, mortagage subsidies etc. Also social programs
could be anything from public education, to fire
services, police services, driving on roads, and even
mailing a letter. I couldn‟t believe how many people
didn‟t take these things into account when answering

24. • My most shocking result was the
overwhelming amount of people who do
not even know their own representative.
This to me seems very alarming. There
seemed to be very little difference
between those subjects with knowledge of
pop culture, and those that did or did not
excessively consume. Overall, I found this
terribly sad, and even alarming on some
levels.

25. • Most Surprising thing was that everyone
aced the part of the quiz that asked people
to identify the company with their specific
product. They even knew the difference
between General Mills cereals and
Kelloggs! Also even though people could
not name their representative, you will all
be pleased to know, not one person got
the president wrong, (although I got some
strange spellings on that one), nor the three
branches of government, or that the
president has to be 35 years old to be
elected.

26. Criticisms
• There could be many factors for why some
people have become disinterested in
politics e.g. coverage overload, political
games, lost faith in the system, or the
seriousness of their current economic
situation.
• My survey/quiz covered a broad range.
Next time I would attempt to make it more
focus.
• My sample size was very small (36 people)
and was not broadly represented (mostly
people my age, my
friends, liberal, educated, and from
southern Maine.)

27. My Conclusion
• That we live in a society in which we are bombarded by
marketing and advertising, and whether you are aware of
it or not, you are effected by it on some level.
• In addition we as a society, we need to focus more on
educating if we want to continue to see our democracy
succeed. We need to not only focus on teaching our
citizens, but specifically focusing on expressing the
importance of our civic duty to remain informed and to
participate in the voting process as citizens of this nation.

28. Thank You!

29. Work Cited
Curtis, Adam. "Happiness Machines." Century of the Self. BBC.
2002. Television.
"Edward Bernays." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr.
2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays>.
The EMarketer Daily Newsletter." Market Research & Statistics:
Internet Marketing, Advertising & Demographics. Nov.
2010. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http://www.emarketer.com/>.
Jefferson, Thomas. "Quotations on Education." « Thomas
Jefferson's Monticello. Thomas Jefferson Foundation INC.
Web. 28 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/quotations-
education>.

30. Work Cited
Lippmann, Walter. Public Opinion. Free Press, 1922. Print.
Pg. 158
McLaren, Warren. "Logo No Go for Nau. A Peek at Branding
and Consumerism." TreeHugger. 14 Apr. 2008. Web. 28
Apr. 2012. <http://www.treehugger.com/culture/logo-no-
go-for-nau-a-peek-at-branding-and-consumerism.html>.
Strauss, Samuel. Atlantic Monthly Nov. 1924. Print.
"The Empire State Building." Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, 29 Apr. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empire_State_Building
>.