Kardashians Research Paper

Consumerism is a major theme in MT Anderson's 2002 novel FEED. Consumerism is the belief that it is good for people to spend a lot of money on goods and services. When people buy things and spend lots of money they are doing it to impress there neighbor and 'Keep up with the Jones's'. As Titus puts it, "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it." (Anderson, 279).

Many people that watch TV often get interested in commercial products because of the celebrity promoting the item. Sue Jozui in her excerpt, argues that applying a famous person to an advertisement should be boycotted because they are supplying the spectator with false information. The author supports her claim by first presenting that consumers expect the object they are purchasing off the advertisement to be an enhancement from their previous purchases. She continues by stating that it is insulting to buyers when famous people are encouraging an item that they simply do not even utilize theirself. The author’s purpose is to boycott celebrities from advertisements and construct laws in order to terminate the fallacious statistics that is

Britney Jean Spears is one the highest paid entertainers throughout the world. Currently she is signed to a residency, based out of Las Vegas preforming her Piece of me show at the Planet Hollywood Axis theatre. She is reportedly earning $310,000 per show in which her contract was just renewed, giving the pop star raise of a $150,000 per show, now being paid a whopping $450,000 per show. The contract is now supposedly worth 66.5 Million dollars. The “Piece of me” superstar may just seem like a beautiful, blonde entertainer; however she is a rising businesswoman sweeping the world by storm with her leadership traits, ambition, drive, dedication, and principals of leadership.

Many people believe that consumerism is limited to technology, but boy oh boy are they wrong! In this day and age consumerism has no limit! Technology, clothes, cars, beauty standards, even food. We are so caught up in, “Living the American dream,” and the whole, “You’re only young once so you might as well,” that we fall into America’s pile of debt. We spend so much money on unnecessary things that we cannot afford to buy our necessary life essentials such as, I don’t know, groceries?

Titus and his friends in M.T Anderson’s book titled Feed constantly feel the immense pressure of the monster which is consumerism. In this dystopian society trends fly past people so much faster than in todays world. As Titus himself states, “It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time (Anderson 279).” In saying this he perfectly explains and represents everything that is completely wrong with consumerism.

In the Article entitled The Impact Celebrities Have On Our Lives by Deborah King discusses the reasons why we are obsessed with celebrities. To begin with, King points out that the truth is that we are obsessed with celebrities. The author implies that the impact of celebrities can be positive as well as negative. In addition, she indicates that some believe we are obsessed with celebrities because we need to have an escape from the humdrum of everyday life. As a result, King, wraps up that we have an obsession with celebrities.

In “ Commodify Your Dissent” article, Thomas Frank shows his point which is based on the American cultural ideas in the 1950s. It has a lot of difference between two lifestyles such as fashion, education, and technology. So that, I agree with Thomas Frank’s contention that marketing no longer promotes conformity but, rather, promotes “never-ending self-fulfillment” and “constantly updated individualism” (paragraph 6) because humans’ trends ,interest, and culture is always changes by the time. When the humans ‘ lives develop increasingly, humans ' needs gradually improve. Comparing to 1950s, the technology in modern life is developed significantly, so advertisers also have to change to match consumer trends to get their attention.

Since the beginning of their rise to fame, critics have repeatedly panned the Kardashians as being “famous for being famous,” yet their influence as cool icons continues to rise. As Harriet Ryan and Adam Tschorn write in the Los Angeles Times, “their popularity comes despite the fact that the sisters lack the talents that traditionally lead to superstardom and, some believe, partly because of it” (Ryan, Tschorn). Something about Kardashian sisters attracts men and women to religiously follow them, but more specifically white, college educated women who are 18 to 34 years old. (CITATION) The women who follow the Kardashians “‘tend to think that’s pretty cool.

The concept of consumerism was first brought to my awareness in First Year Writing. I admit, before this intro course, I was indeed ignorant of the negative impacts that consumption had on society. FYS opened my mind to the dangers of over-consumption, and more importantly, helped me see beyond what meets the eye. Take for example, Disney, a seemingly innocent corporation, a company’s whose name is practically synonymous with the notion of childhood innocence. Upon initial judgement, one would assume that Disney is merely harmless family entertainment.

Mark Spitz states that “he was crestfallen when he ate at another location for the first time” and he recognized the “same stuff on the wall” (189). This moment is crucial because it emphasizes how even the most precious and sentimental aspects of our life are a result of consumer culture. Many aspects cleverly crafted to appear as a one-of-a-kind product or experience actually result in a slightly customizable template. Similarly, Sorensen explains consumerism as “the capacity to realize and replicate itself by borrowing against the guaranteed promise of the future as the site of more of the same and of endlessness of reproduction without difference” (562-3). Whitehead further supports this idea by illuminating the reproduction of a one-of-a-kind

Applications: The applications deal with the “Halo effect”. This effect occurs when the public sees celebrities use the products, they are more inclined to buy the product because they want to mimic their role model. A celebrity is a person who is known by his well knownness. McCracken has defined a celebrity endorser as a person who enjoys public recognition and who uses this recognition on behalf of a brand to endorse the brand.

It is in our books, movies, TV and everyday society. Before researching this topic I was unaware of the role consumption has in my life. I had thought of myself as unique and march to the beat of my own drum as it were. How wrong I was. I realise I am particularly guilty of snobbish conspicuous consumption.

Everyone in the world in the world seems to know who the Kardashians are, wherever you look they seem to appear, on billboards, magazines, in salons, on the internet, pictures of them are plastered everywhere. The Kardashian family is popular culture. In this essay I will be discussing consumerism, the role of technology in consumer culture and materialism in accordance to the show Keeping Up With The Kardashians and the Kardashian family, and explaining it through conflict theory. Conflict theory dictates ideas coined by Karl Marx (1818-1833) who has divided the social groups into two classes, the bougeousie and the proliteriate. He states that because of the inequality in the power balance and the bourgeousie having a capitalist hold over the proletariates, they abuse their power over the proletariates.

People such as celebrities, have a higher influence on people and their decision making on products, which is why many companies hire well-known celebrities to promote their products in the media. In an article written by Marketing Charts called, “How Influential are Celebrities?” they discuss the power of product placement and celebrity endorsements. The statistics for how much a celebrity influences its fans varies throughout the article, depending on what exactly they endorse. The article had some very interesting key points about celebrities also having a negative impact on product endorsement, mentioning that traditional brand promotion without celebrities had more of a positive influence.

Even when celebrities follow the practice of a particular pattern of constantly re-inventing themselves through controversy it promotes public interest and sparks curiosity it often makes front-page news in the media. This is, in a sense, publicity for the celebrity. As it promotes their name and their brand which helps them become more and more recognized. Sociologist Goffman would