ABSTRACT
In a classic critique of advertising, Raymond Williams (1960) notes that modern marketing is far from being materialistically concerned with the functional usefulness of commodities. Rather than emphasising the practical benefits that can be reaped from consumption, marketing materials focus on associating the commodity with a certain kind of social experience. Beer, thus, is no longer promoted as a refreshing or nutritious drink, but becomes a symbol of friendship; the value of washing machines does not come from clean clothes, but from the envy their ownership can provoke in one’s peers. Emphasis has shifted from the material product itself to what its consumption can express about the consumer’s social identity, position and trajectory.
