Manufacturing Choice: A Sociological Critique of Advertising

https://doi.org/10.65161/reccPDXgDiOi5NtzA

Modern societies emphasise consumer choice as a symbol of freedom and a reflection of one’s individuality, by relying on this cognitive bias to downplay the extent to which one’s consumer preferences are moulded by external factors. Sociologists have long theorised about this phenomenon, carefully studying the influence of social class, cultural expectations, symbolic meanings, and institutional power on consumer decision-making. Drawing upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Erving Goffman, Jean Baudrillard, and Susan Sontag, this paper argues that consumer choice is not entirely free or pre-determined. Rather, consumers exercise limited agency within systemic structures that shape ideas surrounding desirability and value, and advertising is a tool that creates this sense of value and desirability by leveraging cultural norms and existing power structures.