Analysis Of Thomas Frank's Essay Commodify Your Dissent

Decent Essays
Since the 1960s, many marketers have used countercultural ideas for attracting customers to efficiently sell their products. In his essay, “Commodify Your Dissent”, Thomas Frank insists that consumerism is "no longer about 'conformity' but about “difference.” Thomas Frank based on the idea of counterculture that is one of the groups which has a responsibility for breaking existing rules of the society. In my opinion, I think his assertion is right because to stimulate, people to buy the commodities, many advertisements continue to use countercultural ideas for being impressively embedded in people’s minds.
In the past, the life style stressed maintenance of tradition, and people were forbidden many deviant things. People tried to do self-denial

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, author Lizabeth Cohen focuses on how the American culture of abundance and consumption influenced many political, socioeconomic and cultural changes in the decades proceeding the end of World War II. She argues that mass consumerism is deeply rooted in the modern American experience. Cohen first uses the prologue of A Consumers' Republic to introduce her own personal story, having grown up during the beginnings of the age of mass consumption. She claims that the purpose of including her personal story was not to demonstrate it's uniqueness, but instead insinuates that it was something along the lines of a common experience in the middle of the 20th century.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    LAWRENCE, Kan.-- Frank Mason III scored 24 points and No. 3 Kansas used a 21-7 run to force overtime and defeat No. 9 West Virginia University 84-80 in overtime on Monday night at the Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The Mountaineers (20-6, 8-5) were cruising when missed free throws and turnovers fueled a Jayhawks run. Devonte' Graham sunk a 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining to pull Kansas (23-3, 11-2) within two.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As I watch television, or drive through the city, all I see are advertisements. In my personal opinion, I rarely pay attention to advertisements, unless they deal with life of humans, animals, babies, and fashion. Advertisements have to leave a statement that will have me thinking to myself on life of others as well as mines, or if I really want to purchase an item. In the article, “Jesus is a Brand of Jeans,” the writer, Jean Kilbourne explains to her readers about advertising and how it is affecting today’s society. Advertisements can be seen any and everywhere and its purpose is to persuade the viewers to get a certain item.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Societies globally are drawn to the latest and greatest, and advertisers take advantage of this natural inclination. The purpose of this text was not only to comically mock advertisers- it was to question the way things are currently done. By using all of these rhetorical strategies, the author is pointing out a problem and encouraging his audience to put into consideration how being focused so much on personal desires can lead to easily being swayed by…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essentially, Baudrillard argues that consumerism is a “self-propelling system of which there seems to be no way out”. (Todd 48) This never-ending cycle of consumerism is reflected numerously throughout the…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They also repressed any thought that didn’t fit in with the norm, according to Equality 7-2521, “it was a sin to be born with a head which is too quick.” It was inconceivable for an individual to dream bigger than his brothers or sisters. Every thought, every action, every feeling was supposed to be exactly the same as the other. It became so evident that his thought process was distinct from everyone that it gave him great pain, at night he’d, “tremble under the blankets,” and bite himself. We could see the effect of Society since the officials were, by consequence, cold and unfeeling towards those around them.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These techniques show consumerism throughout the constant changing society by exemplifying the unconcern from the western cultures towards the eastern and misfortunate cultures due to the belief of consumerism is just…

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Consumerism In Feed

    • 55 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Consumerism is effectively commented upon in M.T. Anderson’s novel, Feed. The author uses grotesque lesions that appear on people’s bodies and intrusive advertisements via devices implanted in their brains to comment on the pervasiveness of consumerism in our world today. The Feed in one huge source of technology that is implanted in the human's head.…

    • 55 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Inequality exists within a consumer society in Bauman’s terms of the ‘seduced’ and the ‘Repressed’. The later being discriminated against their inability to consume as well as the ‘seduced’ due to chronic illness, disability or age affecting their ability to earn enough money to indulge in consumerism possibly resulting in a devalued self and exclusion from those who can consume successfully. However, it should be noted that Bauman’s claim is an assertion with no physical evidence to prove his theory. Supermarkets have come to dominate consumer society in terms of where members of a consumer society shop.…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Naomi Klein’s 1999 No Logo book not only explores but also challenges the impact globalized brands and companies have had on culture. Under the chapter titled “Threats and Temps” (10) she illustrates her point in the specific area of jobs and what they represent. When we enter the final part of the book, this including chapter 16, Klein describes what is known as “Culture Jamming” where advertising is now used as a tool to convey political messages against either corporations or society itself. In this essay I will develop on to the main arguments Naomi Klein raises in No Logo and furthermore expand by adding my own view on the topic at hand with personal data.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trentmann explains that the theoretical debate revolving around consumption has been going on for many decades, but in the last two, a change, or a variation in lens, has occurred (373). Philosophical engagement has been a driving force in the recent consideration of consumerism, and how it relates to modernity and, arguably, its disappearance. Despite the possible disappearance of philosophical factors in consumer culture “the centrality of consumption to modern capitalism and contemporary culture”(Trentmann 373) is still very much thriving. He notes that many thinkers, such as Sombart, Durkheim, and Veblen thought that consumption was a strong force behind modern capitalism and its “dynamism and social structure” (Trentmann 373). As both…

    • 1012 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The yippies say: Do It!” to explain how society praises going against the old norms of society. Lastly, he argues how corporations use this rebellion aspect to their advantage against consumers. As an example, he states “Consumerism is no longer about "conformity” but about “difference.” (Frank 153).…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Seeds Of Death Analysis

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages

    It reveals several new perspectives on this idea and suggests that the consumers must unite and strike down this evil before it is too late. Without appearing excessively forward, it reveals this truth and uses vivid imagery and graphic examples to grab the audience’s attention. All of the film’s elements make for an enjoyable, informative piece on the…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Guilty Not Guilty Found in the November 2017 issue of InStyle magazine, Gucci Guilty, by Gucci, sells the basic eurocentric sex appeal to women if you buy this perfume. The advertisers use various visual techniques to suggest that it’s okay to bide into your deepest desire and note feel guilty about doing it. This appeal targets women who want a more entertaining sex life. Based where I found this ad, this magazine is often read by 25 years old and above which makes the ad semi-effective. Based on Jack Solomon’s Master of Desire we see how American Advertising uses ample ways to persuade the consumer to buy the product they are trying to sell.…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Signs are a commonplace feature of daily life. A sign is defined as anything that can be used to represent something else. (Berger, 2013). Commodity signs are a crucial part of consumer culture. These signs can be found on websites, in advertisements or even in a company’s logo.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays