Essay quotes

Through preliminary research I have selected some quotes which I feel will allow me to build a strong foundation for my essay question, as they show different viewpoints and arguments whilst still maintaining credible and interesting content.


'the package is an extremely important substitute for the personal relationship that people desire'- Humphery p.65

'now the package must do its own selling job, and for that reason a great deal more interest must be taken in the proper packaging of merchandise... the package must 'get attention, arouse interest, create desire, get action'' - Humphery p.87

'modern exchange is not materialistic. It is objects that people really desire, but their lush coating of images and dreams that mesh with a wider promotional culture fuelled by advertising and the broadcast media' - Cummings and Lewandowska p.76

'In one, s/he has no choice:the choice is imposed, even if it feels like spontaneous desire... (the other) is restricted only by a lack of information... these two versions rotate around the same two poles... full information or utter impressionability' - Bowlby p.3

'for the retailer, self-service meant that Mrs Consumer became someone to know but not to meet; to sell to but not to see' - Humphery p.93

'signing the... petition changed the view these people had of themselves... later... they complied in order to be consistent with their newly formed self-image' - Cialdini p.73

''much-loved' brands... instil in us all a 'product loyalty'... (however) brand names are rarely used used to remember shopping past. It was not brands that people recalled but specific food products' - Humphery p.126

'product displays translate into changing 'exhibitions' as everything is cloaked in a subtle nostalgia, repositioning the store as a tourist destination akin to other cultural sites' - Cummings and Lewandowska p.22

'we are now encouraged to use every object or image to imaginatively extend ourselves;... in a sense, a purchase now 'makes' us' - Cummings and Lewendowska p.131

'buying as fulfilment... replaces other forms of leisure' - Humphery p.193

'The price which a person pays for a thing can never exceed, and seldom comes up to that which he would be willing to pay rather than go without it: so that the pleasure which he gives up in paying away its price; and he thus derives from the purchase a surplus of please. The excess of the price which he would be willing to pay rather than go without the thing over that which he actually does pay, is the economic measure of this surplus pleasure, and may be called Consumers' Rent' - Bowlby p.14

'the figure of the girl herself, who 'feeds on' or consumes the beautiful things caricatured as obvious indicators of the consciously aesthetic consumer lifestyle' - Bowlby p.15

'whether people like or dislike the supermarket, demarcate between necessity and leisure shopping, or seek a sense of pleasure through the shop, the very same people often express a quite detailed critique of 'consumer society'' - Humphery p.196

'around a quarter of the British public (26 per cent) report that they have advised someone against using a company because it had not acted responsibly, and a similar proportion (24 per cent) has positively advised some one to use a company because of its responsible actions' - Harrison, Newholm and Shaw p.202

'all the world's a showroom, every man or woman is an advertisement for himself or herself' - Bowlby p.95

'it could be that ethical credentials are seen as a fundamental part of doing business, or simply an 'added extra' or even a passing fad, but either way these firms will not principally position their products on this basis' - Harrison, Newholm and Shaw p.223

'the most risible attempts at corporate 'greenwash' are probably behind us now... Corporations now seem to be even more reserved and cautious about about the types and claims that they make... whereby specific 'ethical' claims are regulated behind other brand attributes' - Harrison, Newholm and Shaw p.228