Do you feel that marketing has made the United States a more materialistic society?

Materialistic, YES! Somewhat bourgeoisie but less pragmatic and more presumptuous. Imagine, kids living in ghettos wearing sneakers costing $180-$200 while their middleclass contemporaries in the suburbs are wearing $40 sneakers, kids living in city ghettoes wearing $80-$150 designer sweatshirts while their counterparts in middle scale families are wearing $20 sweatshirtsâ€¦ or, go to the ghettoes of any major city and see a expensive cars parked on the streets while the kids of those car owner are malnutritioned, using food stamps to buy fattening junk-fast foods and the idiots are probably not paying child support! To those that take offense, DONâ€™T; just look around and figure it out yourselves! I see it every single day! Poor kids from the ghettoes showing off possessions (cell 'phones, expensive CD players, expensive sneakers, expensive designer sweathshirts, expensive designer pants... ); they dress well but they can't even pass their academic classes nor do they know how to complete a job application... hellooooo.... what's wrong with this picture... duhhhhhh!

Years ago, a family was considered poor if they couldnâ€™t afford a telephone and a television. Todayâ€™s â€œpoorâ€ have not only a telephone BUT there are several cell â€˜phones in the household, two or three color TVs in the household, a modern computer with expensive printer and expensive gaming accessories, two or three DVD players, 2 or 3 ACs in the home and are receiving food stamps! Go figure!

It all has to do with the ethics and morals projected by todayâ€™s consumerism and the images portrayed by the supposed thugs of cRAP music displaying the illusions of expensive cars, mansions and scantily dressed pretty (dumb) bimbos hanging around them. Kids live in a fantasy world created by the TV, music video industry, the money-hungry advertisers and manufactures using psychological ploys to induce kids and young adults to spend their money and their parents' money so wastefully. We, as parents, are failing to teach our children right from wrong by acquiescing to each and every whim? Are we teaching our children how to spend wisely or to save for another day...? I THINK NOT.

Our politicians brag about how they (foolishly AND stupidly) give away billions of our tax dollars annually to corrupt governments that squander the monies to enrich those in power and their cronies instead of using it to feed their poor, disabled and elderly; meanwhile, our own poor, disabled and elderly Americans live in substandard housing conditions, and cannot afford life-prolonging medications (our own American pharmaceutical companies overcharge the poor, elderly and disabled Americans who must subsidize the rest of the world although WE give them tax breaks and tax incentives), and often keep substandard diets for lack of moneyâ€¦and our Medicaid and Medicare programs are in dire straits because our elected officials squandered the surplus left by the previous administration! Now almost every nation is our enemy... and they're trying to blackmail us with threats of terrorism and nuclear bombs if we don't SUPPORT them...? WTF is wrong here?

This explains why so many countries throughout the world hate Americans for the wastefulness that is flaunted here while millions starve to death or die of malnutrition and live from day to day from what they can scavenge! Our elected officials are doing the same by living the high life in the spotlight at our expense, prancing around in front of media cameras in their expensive wardrobes and attending fancy dinners costing several thousand dollars a plate... WE PAY FOR THIS and WE SO NOTHING TO STOP IT because too many of us are just plain lazy and the rest are equally as immoral and non-caringâ€¦ sadly enough, itâ€™s disgraceful and most shameful but TRUE!

mayb. thats more consciousness-more money

it would b good if some of d money went to Darfur Sudan

Absolutely, it basically created the culture that has taught us to value possessions and be greedy in general. People have always desired things, but I don't think it was ever to the scale that it is now after marketing and advertising came about in the late 19th century. Advertising really does work.

If it weren't for marketing & advertising, our economy would suck and we would not hold the financial clout and power as we do in the world today!

Not to mention some commercials are funny and reduce your stress levels... That's a positive attribute, right? LOL

I say no. You ask this question as though there is no other culture/country that isn't materialistic or influenced by marketing. We as humans tend to take pride in what we have as a mark of our social status. Even when it's not for social status it's often out of necessity. You can take any non-third-world country that is even slightly successful and see that marketing is everywhere from magazines to TV to radio and even more. You can't play any video games now without some company's logo on a billboard or sign somewhere. People in general are materialistic unless they have been in a society where it depends on community facilities and items. I don't think the US is more materialistic due to marketing. I do however believe that because we were already materialistic to begin with, marketing has become such a big part of American life as well as any other succesful country's life. In essence I see it the other way around.

More materialistic than what?
No, lets face it, from the cradle, humans want whatever strikes their fancy, until we are mature enough to gain restraint. It is up to marketing to reveal how usable a product can be, how it can fill a need like nothing else can. If the marketing isn't as fancy as the competitor, then the customer will buy the competitor's product. Make it fancy and it will strike our fancy. This was true in the tribal market places and it's true today, anywhere on the planet.

No, I think that, to have a roof over our heads and transportation that can get us to work, usually forces us into debit. This numbs us to the truth that debit is bad. Banks encourage us to spend on credit. This encourages us to the believe that it's OK to acquire what we desire. Most adults are too smart to fall for that. Children can be materialistic because they aren't mature, it's up to adults to teach them limits.

Too many people in the U.S.A. have to live with earthquakes, tornados, floods and hurricanes that destroy anything of material worth. If we can't afford to loose it, then we can't afford to have it.

The media & marketing likes to show people that are materialistic because we enjoy having a good laugh. There aren't too many of us that have enough disposable income that they can get whatever they want with it. It is nice to dream that we could be so wealthy that our needs AND wants would be met. It is funny to think that any woman would want to throw away $1,000 on a purse. It makes us glad that we are too smart for that sort of waste. It makes us glad that if we can save a little extra money, we can give it to those who have real needs.

Oh God, yes!

I deliberately didn't take my daughter to see then-current Disney movies and other films with 'tie-in' marketing when she was little. The old movies and stuff with no toys in the stores were just as good, and we could go ANYWHERE without whining about 'buy me this' or 'buy me that' all the time.

She did like Mickey Mouse and Flintstones band-aids, though.

try it is the world at large

Yes & no. I think marketing and advertising is successful because it plays on the fact that the human tendency is (ususally) to not be satisfied with what one has...to think the grass is greener on the other side...to want more, better, and to be the first to have it! Thus consumerism and the "throw-away" society that we now live in.

So, back to the question: I don't think marketing has "made" the U.S. more materialistic. However, the marketing industry's aim is NOT to teach us to be content with what we have, and to mainly buy what we need. It's most likely aiding and abetting that greedy nature that is somewhere in all of us. In that sense, what makes the U.S. materialistic is not in the marketing strategies, but in its individual people. Hopefully most Americans have/will learn(ed) to see through it and make wiser choices.

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