Details

32 mins, 2001

The 1950s saw the start of a consumer boom. TV enabled advertisers to enter people’s homes. Marketing became a huge industry and was defined as the “4ps”: product, price, promotion and place. But how helpful is this?

You buy one product, not another. Is it because of the packaging or where you live? Firms spend vast sums on research and focus groups – all to find out who their customers are, how they think.

Much of advertising isn’t about new products, it’s about established names – Disney, McDonalds, M&S, C&A… what goes on behind the brand?

Marketing promises more choice. But what about the “costs” of consumerism – pollution and global warming – which seem to threaten our world?