ON SALE AT OLD NAVY: COOL CLOTHES FOR I DENTICAL ZOMBIES!

ON SALE AT OLD NAVY: COOL CLOTHES FOR I DENTICAL ZOMBIES!

“On sale at Old Navy: Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies!” is an article in which we can find how mass-market retail stores like Old Navy, Gap, and Ikea do their marketing. In the’60s, American businesses co-opted the cool anti-corporate ness, but now they can be defines by corporations. Cave’s ideas show that he did not exactly support either side consumerism. However, we can discuss this article through three aspects that are how businesses do their marketing, the trap of materialism, and the cycle of work and spend.

The businesses do their markets in the way to attract the consumers. The first thing that they have to be “cheap but tasteful.” Things in the store make the consumers “don’t notice that you’re conforming because everything is so colorful” (p.4). “Theater for the brand” and “The idea is to create a Mecca where people make pilgrimages to the brand,” that is why people go to the store and line up day by day including because the stores “offer good stuff cheap”. In addition, like Packard Jennings said the stores’ designs numb the brain from the purchasing process. The designers can plan the markets in mystic ways or they are psychologists. In any way, they can make the consumers go to their stores and buy and buy. If there is anything it might because they are good in their businesses. If we know what everything is, we do not end up with more than we need.

In contrast, if the businesses increase their profit because of a lot of people go to their stores we can find something that “Americans know that money doesn’t buy happiness, but most people somehow believe that increments in pay or goods will improve our lives. It’s a human weakness-particularly in America.” What can we do about this? What the businesses do is to satisfy their customers and also for their benefit. However, what other experiments worry is the businesses can make people forget the real culture, because they spend most their times shopping. It is “the trap of materialism”, and if the traps were set at the stores, the businesses would be the directors and the consumers would be their actors, do anything they wanted, or bought anything they wanted. Who set the traps for whom to get caught is clear. However, the materialism traps very affected others mental. People have never wanted to trap themselves; they want to set traps to others. If there were traps, there were victims, but we live in the same society, the mutual effect would not be for one side alone in the long run. For they just think the traps were for the people of other side, but we are not completely separate, and all lived in the same society, if one side was completely expended, the other would have no more benefit.

It might be because of “the cycle of work and spend” (p.22) and because the businesses are in corporations. In “the cycle of work and spend”, people go to the store because they work and earn the money, if they do not have money, they will not. Of course, we, consumers, do not want to be in that chain. However, we do not know what to do else, we happy to work to earn money and spend. Since the trap of materialism we might not get out of the trap, and the chain will be more and more stable day by day. Therefore we need the corporation in whole society to look at that chain, to corporate with others, either the businesses or consumers or everyone else. This would be the idea of the opposite, but we should think this problem in the situation of the whole society.

There are businesses, consumers and anti-consumerism activists. What we really want for our society is the main reason for some people to think of this subject. What the businesses do is for their profit, but the trap of materialism is either good or bad for our mentality. Cave wanted to remind us about the businesses done today. The three sides businesses, consumers, and anti-consumerism activists, what side we are in, or whatever side. All of them, or all of us wanted to make our society better. Of course, the businesses wanted to give their best produces that made their customers satisfied, and the customers bought the produces because they were useful. So why the anti-consumerism activists seemed against the businesses, they do because their jobs or because they wanted something that were good for our society in mutual effect. One time, when I was in the store I heard somebody said, “Buy what you need!” So maybe the anti-consumerism activists as if some people who reminded us spent our money with our minds. Otherwise, we just buy and buy because of the colorful or the prices of the goods. People go to the stores because they need things, and because they have money. However, it they bought many things that they do not really need, and they do not use them. Our resources are limited; one day there will be no more. So the trap of materialism might catch all of us what ever side we are finally in completely expended our resources. If the chance of work and spend will not be broken, it will make our lives always busy to get our lives to be more vulnerable and faster especially for the future generations. Therefore, we need the corporation of the whole society.

In conclusion, in the 60s, American businesses co-opted cool anti-corporate, but now they can defined by corporations, because of how businesses do their markets, the trap of materialism, and the cycle of work and spend. We can see us in this, and we hope good thing for either businesses or consumers.

HƯ TRÚC
14/06/2010