Course Description

This course aims to examine the development of mass society, mass production, consumption and the American consumer from the late 19th century to the present. Areas considered may include industrialization and the development of work in relation to leisure, Worlds Fairs, the development of the advertising industry, the impact of American suburbanization on consumer behavior, television, technology, shopping, mass production and consumption.



Course Instructor: Matthew Ferguson, Department of American Studies - Rutgers University

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Free Blog



I wanted to share this video I found on YouTube about brands.  The film is 40 minutes long but it is very interesting and brings up a lot of the issues relevant to our class.  Naomi Klein discusses how companies realized that their success was not in the actual product itself, it was in the brand name, an idea, a lifestyle and a meaning (No Logo).  She shows how companies marketed these ideas to, for example, young people and cars.  Car companies capitalized on the love of young people to listen to music in their cars.  They ran commercials with teens dancing and singing in their cars, selling them the idea (No Logo).  Lately, as Klein interprets the situation, there has been a push or resistance to these ideas and she gives reasons why this has happened.  People began to notice and expose the harmful side effects of globalization.


Oleg Morgunov
Section 01
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