Conspicuous Consumption through Social Media

“The Powerful Theory of Conspicuous Consumption” describes the idea formed by Thorstein Veblen in his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class.” Veblen states conspicuous consumption is the idea that consumers buy products just for sake of having them, not actually because they need them. The article mentions that consumption began to play a major role in the American society when advertising started increasing, department stores started popping up, the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and growth of mass media.

            Media in itself is a $970 billion industry (Potter, 235). $316 million of that comes from advertising (Potter, 235). Some of the most popular places for advertising are places that most people have easy access to and check frequently: social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Our group decided to look into the costs of advertising on these popular sites and if it actually works.

            According to an article on Linkedin written by Sara Wheelwright, S & E Trusted Online Directories Inc - Founder/ Head of strategy, Facebook ads have an initial set-up fee of $500-1,500. After that fee has been taken care of, it’s broken down a bit more. Promoted ads can cost anywhere from $1,500-20,000, while monthly ads range from $1,000-2,000 for 1-3 months of promotion (Wheelwright).

            Twitter, on the other hand, has a different tactic. According to a business page for Twitter, promoted tweets cost $0.50-2.00 per interaction. If someone clicks, favorites, retweets, or replies to a promoted tweet, the promoter is pays $0.50-2.00. A promoted account generally costs $2.50-4.00 per new follower, states the Twitter business page. The page also mentions the most expensive advertising option through Twitter is the promoted trend which can cost approximately $200,000, and guarantees placement on the trends list on Twitter for 24 hours.

            After spending thousands of dollars of advertising on popular social media websites, is all the advertising actually working? According to an article on Forbes, written by Davia Temin, people have subconsciously trained themselves to ignore whatever advertising does not interest them. 80% of people, or 4 out of every 5, have never bought a product because of a Facebook advertisement (Temin). People do still buy products they don’t need, but according to these statistics, it’s not because of advertising tactics through Facebook sidebars. However, hashtags on Twitter seem to draw the most attention to products. For example, Hershey’s created #CookieHQ. The hashtag was used 14,875 times by 898 people, and reached the timelines of over 34.6 million people (Temin). 36.4 million people probably didn’t need chocolate or cookies, but after seeing it trending and seeing it on their timelines, a lot of those people probably wanted chocolate or cookies, and probably some of those people acted on that want and got chocolate or cookies.

            Conspicuous consumption is still very much present in today’s society. The growth of mass media has influenced this idea even more because there are new ways of advertising for unnecessary products everyday. While a Facebook advertisement 
may not make us want to go out and buy and a product, hashtags 
have the ability to draw us, keep us scrolling for hours, and 
potentially end up convincing us that we need the product.

Works Cited

"Analytics of Twitter." Twitter. Twitter Inc., 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Citibank Advertisement: http://www.limkokwing-studios.com/graphics/gallery/works/citibank_ad.jpg

Ford Fiesta Advertisement: http://www.cartype.com/pics/7253/full/ford_fiesta_technology_ad_10.jpg

L’oreal Advertisement: http://www.art-dept.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/JH_Loreal.jpg

Potter, W. James. Media Literacy. 7th ed. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2014. Print.

Starbucks Advertisement: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2009/05/06/2009186184.jpg

Temin, Davia. "Don't Waste Money - Make Your Social Media Advertising Smarter, More Original, More Effective." Forbes. N.p., 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Verizon Wireless Advertisement: http://s3images.coroflot.com/user_files/individual_files/original_373982_Q8Y8ah2VLtGWKA_rxZAUvM3Or.jpg

Wheelwright, Sara. "How Much Does Marketing with an Ad Agency, Marketing Company, Social Media Company and Video Companies Really Cost?" Linkedin. N.p., 19 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.