I will elaborate more on the research I did, while I was away in Disney World, tomorrow. In the meantime, here is my S.P. Proposal:

Ever since the end of World War II, Americans have always been encouraged to shop. Consumerism was built around maintaining a decent and comparable standard of living. However, in recent decades, consumerism has mutated into something more sinister. “Keeping up with the Joneses” does not apply anymore. Rather, it is now spend, spend, spend. Because of that attitude, America spends more, borrows more, and wastes more now than it ever did. Our country is in about ten trillion dollars worth of debt and has a trade deficit that is further strangling our economy. We are a country spending ourselves disastrously. I believe that we are trained to behave this way since birth. In American, we are born consumers. As children, we are trained to desire and consume. That attitude follows into adulthood and so forth comes a generation of broke borrowers. This semester, I want to focus my senior project on the “Commodification of Childhood”. I believe the root of our consumer culture begins at childhood and I want to take the semester to explore that topic by bringing the facts and data in an engaging light through guides, posters, and maybe even a commerical (like a campaign).

For the past month, I had been reading and watching documentaries regarding corporations. After doing research and looking at other artist’s reactions, I felt that the subject of marketing to children interested me the most. While watching the documentary The Corporation, I felt most drawn to this topic. At one point, a director for marketing explained how the “Nag Factor” worked; advertisers use psychologists to create commercials that will manipulate children to whine to their parents for products. Not surprisingly, the director would not answer if their actions were ethical. It was after watching this segment that I felt more compelled to focus on child consumerism.

As I write this proposal, I can not help but dwell on the statistics that were presented in the book, by Susan Linn, called Consuming Kids. The average child spends as much time watching T.V. as they spend in school. Parents are powerless against a multi-billion dollar industry. Parents give in, children give in, and marketers, advertisers and corporations all turn a profit. Childhood is rampantly being consumed. Children are raised only to be consumed themselves later on in life whether it be because of debt, lack of resources or just shallow materialism. This is the topic I would like to expand upon for the semester. Like other anti-consumerism artists such as Barbara Kruger, Bansky, or those whose work are featured in Adbusters or the book The Design of Dissent, I want to make informative work that brings this topic, its related data, statistics, and philosophies, to light. I want to make work that will, hopefully, get people to pause and think for a moment about their own consumerism.