Colin Campbell on Thorstein Veblen on Conspicuous Consumption

摘要

It is important to note that Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) largely predated the development of the advertising industry whose primary genesis came in the 1920s, a decade noted for its ostentatious display and waste of status-enhancing goods. In fact, one of his chief accomplishments in that study was to anticipate the role of modern advertising by analyzing the self-advertisement of the leisure class. He also came to believe that the massive expenditures on advertising and salesmanship indicated the view of marketers that consumers can be persuaded to buy goods and services that they do not need. The purchase of brand items that are heavily advertised and sold is thus a form of revealed preference for luxury goods. In keeping with these trends, the literature on consumption by marketing specialists, historians of advertising and salesmanship, literary critics, aestheticians, and social scientists has grown to massive proportions in recent years. Although economists still lag behind in their contributions to what can only be labeled a growth industry of impressive size, more social scientists than ever before are studying consumption. Much of this literature mentions Veblen on conspicuous consumption at least in passing.