week 12 - Commodity fetishism

Use value and exchange value commodity self.

“Consumerism creates an abstract world of signs and symbols separate from the economic context of commerce & production.”

How?

Mass produced are emptied of the meaning of their production (the context in which they were produced and the labour that created them) and then filled with new meanings in ways that both mystify the product and turn it into a fetish object. 

Commodity culture and commodity fetishism

A consumer culture is a commodity culture that is were commodities are central to cultural meaning. Commodities are things that can be bought or sold in a social system of exchange. The idea of commodity culture goes with the idea that we create our identities, even in the slightest way through consumer products which can be called the "commodity self". Everything from your clothing to the car you drive create your identity. Advertising encourage people to think of such commodities as central to conveying your personality. They will sell the idea that if you buy a certain brand or product you will therefore become a certain kind of person.