The Consumer Is a Target of Planned Obsolescence

[Yehonala]

"The consumer is perpetually targeted directly by corporations and various businesses to buy, wear/use products, and then swiftly discard them when they are no longer fashionable. This method is called “planned obsolescence.” Planned obsolescence is defined as “the conscious decision on the part of an agency to produce a consumer product that will become obsolete in a defined time frame.” This phrase was coined by an American industrialist named Brooks Stevens. The fashion industry, car industry, and even companies that produce razors for shaving are but a few types of businesses that practice and promote this wasteful method of production and eventual planned consumption."

http://businesslinkshere.com/TheConsumerIsaTargetofPlannedObsolescence.aspx

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The auto industry...and the electronic industry are charter subscribers to this philosophy

[phantom power]

2. I would also add kitchen appliances to that.

I've been fucking pissed at the longevity (or lack of) for our kitchen appliances. And when I researched on consumer reports, I discovered that the brands we had (sears/kenmore) were pretty much at the top of the reliability lists. In other words, everybody in that market space makes products as crappy or crappier.

There appears to be absolutely nobody who has pursued the niche of "more-expensive-but-lasts-forever"

[kristopher]

3. Not true, that.

The Japanese domestic market is fixated on quality. Living space is at a premium and frugality is a social virtue.


This doesn't increase your purchasing options here unless you are conversant in Japanese and are willing to pay the freight and money xfer fees. We just bought a not-available-here item from a shop in Tokyo online and the final tally was around 3X the already high retail price.

[phantom power]

8. Quality and frugality? Hmm, it really is a foreign culture.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Why not “cheap-but-lasts-forever?”

Seriously… I can think of things from my grandparents’ generation (and before) which are still in use in the family today…

[phantom power]

9. Before they discovered planned obsolecense.

The fools! They saturated their own markets by making stuff that lasted forever!

[Terry in Austin]

4. Flash!

Seems I remember reading something about that in Mad Magazine, circa 1958. Seriously!

[rudy23]

5. Best two word argument against libertarianism.

Best one word argument--Enron.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Bernard London

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence#Origins_of_the_term

…

Origins of the term

Origins of planned obsolescence go back at least as far as 1932 with Bernard London's pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence. However, the phrase was first popularized in 1954 by Brooks Stevens, an American industrial designer. Stevens was due to give a talk at an advertising conference in Minneapolis in 1954. Without giving it much thought, he used the term as the title of his talk.

From that point on, "planned obsolescence" became Stevens' catchphrase. By his definition, planned obsolescence was "Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary."

Stevens' term was taken up by others, and his own definition was challenged. By the late 1950s, planned obsolescence had become a commonly used term for products designed to break easily or to quickly go out of style. In fact, the concept was so widely recognized that, in 1959, Volkswagen mocked it in a now-legendary advertising campaign. While acknowledging the widespread use of planned obsolescence among automobile manufacturers, Volkswagen pitched itself as an alternative. "We do not believe in planned obsolescence," the ads suggested. "We don't change a car for the sake of change."

In 1960, cultural critic Vance Packard published The Waste Makers, promoted as an exposé of "the systematic attempt of business to make us wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontented individuals."

…