Why The Things We Buy Suck

You're about to read a rabbit hole I metaphorically fell into and took five business days to get out of. I'm here to share how I'm processing. I'm watching a Vox video, Why Everything You Buy is Worse Now, and the interviewee, Izzie Ramirez, is talking about purchasing the same product from the same brand, except the quality has gone down. She used the phrase Consumer Engineering to explain what she was experiencing. It means exactly how it sounds. Consumer Engineering occurs when we, as consumers, no longer wait for things to wear out but displace them with other things that aren't more efficient but more attractive.

I dove deeper out of concern for being brainwashed. Consumer Engineering is a term that can have different interpretations depending on the context. When designing a product, focusing on meeting consumers' needs and desires refers to Consumer Engineering. By this definition, Consumer Engineering involves understanding consumer behavior and preferences to create attractive, functional, and profitable products.

Here is where it gets manipulative. Some interpretations of Consumer Engineering suggest an approach that exploits psychology and marketing techniques to influence consumer behavior and encourage certain purchasing decisions. For example, a line of hype beasts outside the Supreme store increases the likelihood of creating desire. 

I discovered that Consumer Engineering has a close relative named Planned Obsolescence. Planned Obsolescence is the styling of manufactured goods to appear more acceptable than their predecessor to consumers. Apple's annual release reminds consumers every year that there's an even better version of the phone they own. These persuasive advertising techniques influence purchase frequency, usage behaviors, and perceptions of quality and durability.

Consumer Engineering represents the socially constructed relationship between advertising, public taste, and the production of goods. This process imbues products with excessive or disproportionate value, significance, or desire. This magical property imparted by advertising makes newer products more acceptable than what people already own, turning them into objects of desire. Happily swapping out current possessions for sleek, new designs conditions people to invest their value in products, resulting in higher expectations for brands and fueling hype and production cycles. This speed gives brands an excuse to produce mediocre products.

Earnest Elmo Calkins, the Father of modern advertising, was an early American proponent of integrating art and industry to recover from the years of slumping sales due to the Great Depression. He witnessed a 'new art' phenomenon in Paris. Owners decorated their shops with various cubistic and futuristic graphics, packages, and displays. Most of this aesthetic was too bizarre for the ultra-utilitarian American taste then, but the avante-garde expressionism undeniably achieved greater intrigue, excitement, or harmony. 

Calkin proposed styling manufactured goods to control consumers' behaviors, many of whom were women then, by incrementally feeding them new colors and designs. To stimulate progress, Calkin believed "it is necessary to displace what consumers already have, still useful, outdated, old-fashioned, and obsolete," no matter how artificial. What seemed to be a new method for transfiguring commonplace objects would eventually become a strategy by which brands could represent the essence of what the product symbolizes to the consumer, adding to the saleability of goods and justifying production demands. Our manufactured desire for what's new leads to hyper-consumption, prioritizing speed and convenience over quality and craftsmanship. 

Blinded by money, Calkin's over-prioritized industry and consumer manipulation over artistic value are the distinct parts of his Paris experience. Everything sucks because there's no artistic quality. Progressive European modernists believed in the affinity that exists between modern industrialism and some aspects of art, which, combined, aid people in acquiring new points of view on life while giving artists credibility and exposure. By producing products with artistic value, they transcend aesthetic ideals set by rigid institutions and power imbalances.

Alternatively, Consumer Engineering can refer to the practice of ensuring that products are safe, reliable, and meet regulatory standards. This process focuses on consumer safety and satisfaction, durability, usability, and compliance. Overall, consumer engineering encompasses various aspects of product development, marketing, and consumer protection to create products and experiences that meet consumers' needs and expectations while ensuring their well-being and satisfaction.