In the article “More Work for Mother” by Cowan, it focuses on how the term industrialization is just as relevant to our society as a whole as it is to our very own households. In class we discussed how this concept is true for household tools that, while created for ease, actually create more “work” instead for “mother”. Something that I found fascinating however was how we discussed houses adapting to these technologies in a way that I never thought of before; Such as with laundry rooms for washers and dryers and larger living rooms for larger televisions. Thus with these changes come changes in behavior, like the article mentioned with the creation of cabinets and putting away dishes. Similarly in class we discussed how the ease of washing machines make us do more laundry because, well we can. But what I kept thinking about while reading this article was how the adaptation of the household to the changes in technology leads to an incredible market of household items. Such as mentioned in the article, most people cannot make their own bread so instead they have to buy it; or at least the ingredients for it, with the proper tools to make it. This in itself is a whole market of goods that advertisers can sell to consumers who, are already at home, watching TV, possibly looking for the next best product/service that will make their lives easier. At least this is how the advertisers will market it, and make the consumers believe they need it to improve their lives, even if it is causing them “more work” in the end.
Another thing the article mentioned is how if something went wrong with one of these high tech machines, we would not know how to fix it ourselves. Thus this is another industry of appliance workers/ repair folk that has boomed as a result of the need for household appliances. In fact, by making the household a social issue, manufactures and jobs of all kinds are generated to fill these needs. This division of labor, with specialized tasks makes us dependent on society as a whole, just to function in our own homes. Not only are we dependent on those who produce and fix these products we become slaves to the products ourselves in that most of us could not adequately clean a carpet, if left with only our hands, as efficiently as we could with a vacuum cleaner.
Going back to the idea that advertisers and manufacturers create a need for said products, looking at the copy of ads makes it clear that they make you feel like this product was made for you.
“Finally, frontload laundry that fits your family and budget”
That tagline for a washer and dryer by General Electric, was carefully selected to make the consumer chose that product over the competition by making them feel like its exactly what they need. Advertisers also like to pull on emotions to evoke a behavior from their consumers with ads like:
using words like “love”, and “joy” it makes whoever is watching the ad feel like they need this product in their home in order to make their meals better. Will this product actually make your meals better? Maybe. Will it create more work for the consumer and actually complicate the process? Perhaps. But does the ad make me want to buy, whatever it is selling? Absolutely. Even if it is completely unnecessary and just another tech item causing more trouble than it should in my kitchen.
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