Cara Delevingne: Come and Find Me/ Fantasy, play and desire in advertising.

Why didn’t we have the revolution that Karl Marx predicted? Because Marx didn’t predict the effects technological advances have had on society. Modern medicine means we have had unprecedented population growth. Modern communications means businesses can be run globally. Mass media and advertising have had huge effects on societies consumption patterns.

Rachel Bowlby (1993) examines the psychology behind the process of consumption. She looks at sales and marketing manuals from the 1890s and the development of advertising psychology and the development of Freudian psychology in the 20^th century. She compares Freud’s approach to psychology as being similar to the gain and loss scenario of ‘making up’ a term used in sales manuals from the 1920s onwards.

Bowlby describes the four basic stages of a sale as

1. Attraction

2. Interest

3. Desire

4. Sale (Action)

She describes the point at which a customer decides to buy a product as “The point at which both control over actions and mental conflict – a tension between ideas – are eliminated. “ Bowlby states that this moment is similar to the moment of recognition that occurs during analysis because it involves intuition and is a turning point.

Bowlby argues that the psychological practices of consumption make it a sophisticated process and therefore not something to be devalued or not considered. How much psychological influence have television shows and commercials had on human beings consumption habits? What kind of a play/drama are you performing every time you enter a store? Is your decision to purchase experienced as a magical moment?

Bowlby, Rachel, (1993) Make up your mind: scenes from the psychology of shopping and selling, In, Shopping with Freud (pp.94-119). Routledge. ISBN 0-415060079

Alexander McQueen : Taste and consumption

When discussing the phenomenon of consumption, Jean Baudrillard (1998) argues that popularization of a need or product can only occur after it has been first formed at an elite level of society. It then flows down to the lower and middle classes in their unending quest for improvement of status. Baudrillard refers to this pattern as a structured social field. It is a law that governs the introduction of new distinctive commodities and needs.

This theory may not always be true. Alexander Mc Queen who is from a working class background was a fashion designer, artist and showman. His innovation with design was unique. It was only after he gained popularity with the public that Givenchy employed him. This example shows how new ideas can form and grow in approval from any level of society.

McQueen's Autumn/Winter 2007 show was inspired by Elizabeth Howe, an ancestor of his who was murdered in the Salem witch trials of 1692. His shows were like performance art, his clothes were an alchemy of imagination, skill and passion.

Baudrillard, Jean (1998), The social logic of consumption. In, The consumer society: myths and structures (pp.49-68). SAGE. ISBN 0-761956921.