Pecking into Popular Culture

Commodity Fetishism

February 8, 2009 at 1:22 am | Posted in Capitalism, commodity fetishism | Leave a comment

  

According to Sturken and Cartwright’s practices of looking, commodity fetishism “refers to the process by which mass produced goods are emptied of the meaning of their productions…and then filled with new meanings in ways that both mystify the product and turn it into a fetish object”. 

 

Take for example, an American eagle sweater, the consumer is given no information on who made it, what factory it was produced in, or the culture in which it was made. Instead, according to Sturken and Cartwright, the product is attached with logos and connected to advertising images that instil it with cultural meanings unconnected to its specific production conditions and context.

 

Advertising functions to affix certain meanings to products that they would not necessarily have in themselves. These attributes are usually complex and emotional; objects (the product being sold) acquire human attributes, such as cool, sexy, or successful. For example, the perfume Chanel no.5 has attributes of wealth, class status, and tradition. Ads tell us that we want to feel/be/appear wealthy and of a high class status and if we buy Chanel no.5 we will.