Each is marked by different consumption patterns. As you read this chapter, ask yourself why the sense of self is eroded by loss of personal control over the environment. Look around your friends' rooms. This section uses sociological theory to understand how the culture of consumption differentiates and excludes. Objects that define the self both distinguish us from some and unite us with others.
Sociologists believe social class is the most important division in society.
In a consumer society life revolves around commodities. In this section we focus on an aspect of commodification crucial to modern marketing and the survival of modern capitalist economies - branding. This is nicely illustrated in the recent history of professional sports, where basketball has risen from the dead, commercially speaking, while ice hockey is in danger of suffering the same fate as Sylvania television. If branding is all about image , then business competition takes place over images. Lecture 11 .