Quotes About Consumerism

Boredom is a fearsome prospect. There's a limit to the number of cars and microwaves you can buy. What do you do then?

Advertising is salesmanship mass produced. No one would bother to use advertising if he could talk to all his prospects face-to-face. But he can't.

In consumer protection, you can say it hurts business; that is, it makes them comply with the law, which is actually what we want them to do, but it helps consumers.

The fact that I like to buy inessential things to make myself feel better is neither a secret nor something I'm particularly proud of. And I know I'm not alone.

Hollywood is in love with any kind of nostalgia that can prove itself to be commercial.

Pop music has been all but relegated to the remainder bin at MTV and VH1, where high-maintenance concoctions such as Paris Hilton, Flavor Flav, and Hulk Hogan's biohazard clan of bleached specimens provide endless hours of death-hastening diversion.

What unites them is an almost reckless desire to test themselves in the most extreme circumstances. In many respects the life they have chosen is a complete rejection of the hyped, consumerist American dream as it is dished out in reality TV shows and pop-song lyrics. They've chosen asceticism over consumption. Instead of celebrating their individualism, theyíve subjugated theirs to the collective will of an institution. Their highest aspiration is self-sacrifice over self-preservation.

Any rich, unprogressive old party with that particularly grasping, acquisitive form of mentality known as financial genius can own a paper that is the intellectual meat and drink of thousands of tired, hurried men, men too involved in the business of modern living to swallow anything but predigested food. For two cents the voter buys his politics, prejudices, and philosophy.

Any rich, unprogressive old party with that particularly grasping, acquisitive form of mentality known as financial genius can own a paper that is the intellectual meat and drink of thousands of tired, hurried men, men too involved in the business of modern living to swallow anything but predigested food. (201)

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, 'What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?' And, 'How does creativity apply across the board?'

Fashion is fun, ridiculously fun. But it's base and it's wrong. You're not doing anything good for the world. You're just saying, 'Buy it, buy it, buy it.'

'Fast Food Nation' was boring and aimed at yuppies, and yuppies don't eat fast food.

I actually was able to give up shopping in February '99.

Few people think about politics every day. But they are in the market every day.

Capitalism and people who control the market have a large hand in everything. It doesn't have anything to do with figuring out what the crowd wants to hear. It has to do with the media deciding what they think people want to hear.

There will presently be no room in the world for things; it will be filled up with the advertisements of things.

In this age of consumerism film criticism all over the world - in America first but also in Europe - has become something that caters for the movie industry instead of being a counterbalance.

A lot of the advertisement is done by saying: first of all, have a complex about who you are.

I'm rarely invited to start-up parties, but who cares about their trinkets and apps anyway?

I think the people should have a right to boycott whoever they want to boycott without the government making them into criminals and try to protect corporations from people. They should protect people from corporations.

The whole thing of clothes is insane. You can spend a dollar on a jacket in a thrift store. And you can spend a thousand dollars on a jacket in a shop. And if you saw those two jackets walking down the street, you probably wouldn't know which was which.

I tend to think that the whole concept of, 'I saw this TV show, and someone was wearing this sweater, and now I'm going to buy that,' it's something that's been talked about for a long time, but I've never really seen it work. When people are watching an entertainment show, they want to be entertained.

IQ is a commodity, data is a commodity. I'm far more interested in watching people interact at a restaurant with their smartphone. We can all read 'Tech Crunch,' 'Ad Age.' I would rather be living in the trenches. I would rather be going to Whole Foods in Columbus Circle to watch people shop with their smartphones.

I hate Whole Foods.