Tis the season to buy, and buy, and buy! Christmas, as well as other holidays and special occasions have been hijacked by the advertising industry on behalf of large (and small) businesses. This was not done recently by the way, it was done quite a long time ago. This affects and programs society in a variety of ways, many times in a negative fashion.
Here is an excerpt from the Journal of Retailing from 1955.
The Real Meaning of Consumer Demand
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.
These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat, drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption. The home power tools and the whole “do-it-yourself” movement are excellent examples of “expensive” consumption.
What becomes clear is that from the larger viewpoint of our economy, the total effect of all the advertising and promotion and selling is to create and maintain the multiplicity and intensity of wants that are the spur to the standard of living in the United States. A specific advertising and promotional campaign, for a particular product at a particular time, has no automatic guarantee of success, yet it may contribute to the general pressure by which wants are stimulated and maintained. Thus its very failure may serve to fertilize this soil, as does so much else that seems to go down the drain.
As we examine the concept of consumer loyalty, we see that the whole problem of molding the American mind is involved here.
More than likely, very few people are aware of this, so let's take a look at what this means. By intertwining consumption of goods and services (many of them simply are manufactured wants) with rituals and holidays like Christmas, which already had a history of gift giving, programs people into buying at certain times of the year, or for certain events. Many people run up huge debts around the Christmas without ever thinking why they are doing this in the first place. Has it always been that way? No. Does it have to be this way? No.
When it comes to the the religion of consumerism, Christmas is the grand-daddy of them all. The marketing of this particular holiday as a time to go out and shop knows no bounds. It is heavily promoted around the world, and even in countries that have very little Christians at all. This shows that Christmas has been hijacked and really has become a holiday revolving around consumerism.
Christmas madness gets crazier every year and the amount of spending that happens on black Friday and cyber-Monday show that what was talked about in the Journal of Retailing over 60 years ago, has worked very well. Advertisements come at you from all angles and which continually encourage people to spend money, even if they don't have it, on things that they generally don't need. No wonder things like stress and depression tend to spike during the holiday season?
Here is a link to the Journal of Retailing - 1955
http://www.gcafh.org/edlab/Lebow.pdf