Refreshing the American dream
What do you value?
I’ve just stumbled upon an old slideshare presentation listing American core values:
Achievement & Success, Individualism, Freedom, Progress, Material Comfort, Activity, Practicality, External Conformity, Humanitarianism, Youthfulness, Fitness & Health.
Many of these values flow from our history as a country promoting life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness in the “land of plenty.”
James Truslow Adams first coined the term American Dream in his 1931 book Epic of America: He wrote: “It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”
When we talk about American dreams, we often forget to mention the social order part that Adams mentions…instead, we tend to focus on the part about high wages & motor cars.
The US has long been seen as the prototypical consumption led economy. Businesses have successfully “helped us” translate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness into consumption terms. “Free” offers are designed to break down our barriers to purchase, our mailboxes are filled with credit card offers, and we have leaders advocating shopping to cure our ills (Pres. Bush post 9/11 speech). Clearly, we’re living in a culture revolving around the acquisition of stuff. We have even turned most of our holidays into “key consumption periods.”
Yes indeed, corporations, shareholders, advertisers, politicians…everyone has helped lure America (and a large part of the western world) into becoming a consumer led culture. We’re taught to buy…and then critique. Increasingly, we’re even being taught to “take.” Brands are encouraged to become Brand Butlers (or free service providers) or Brand entertainers, etc.
Buy. Take. Free. Rate & Review…
The Sad Part
The short-term consumer mindset built by elite leaders, organizations and even us (yep, we are shareholders too) has put America in a shockingly deep debt situation. We’ve prodded the middle class into binge consumption, yet real wages have not risen. In fact, middle class Americans have seen a $2,000 decline in median family income over the past eight years. That’s depressing and shameful.
Average household debt in the United States is 130% of average household income, up 20% since 2005 and double what it was twenty years ago. The US household savings rate is close to zero.
We’ve taught the middle class and a couple of generations that it is totally OK to live beyond their means.
A day of reckoning is coming…
Refreshing the Dream (at least a bit)
So how can we communicate and build brands by highlighting that lesser known part of the American dream–namely the social order part? Campaigns like Pepsi Refresh are starting to do this by helping people, communities, etc. create, build and develop a post-consumption world. These campaigns tap into those forgotten American values listed above (Humanitarianism, Practicality, etc.)
The Center for the New (Old) American Dream is trying to help Americans consume responsibly, protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice. Have a look at their website or blog for more thoughts on getting back to basics.
I’ve got some more thoughts on this, but need to quit…so, shoot a couple of comments over if you want.
2 Comments
Outstanding post! The corporate media, however, will never stand for Americans going back to old values. So, the media, especially Fox and now CNN, promote this culture of consumer entitlement, and if you have debt then it’s a liberal’s fault, and, they’ll define liberal for you. Americans, in particular, have become lazy and silly. So, they have tea parties so they can cry and whine and slobber. This is way worse than the French. The French cry and whine but they don’t slobber and they are capable of having an intelligent conversation. The old timers might have bitched a bit at the coffee shop, but then they went back to work. No Facebook, CNN, Fox or other absurd distractions for them…they had things to do. And, the treatment of health care as a consumer product…what is that about? Oh, sorry, obviously it is a consumer product in the USA. Does any reasonably intelligent worker in a medical office in the USA actually believe they would have a job but for the government? No they don’t…again assuming they are reasonably intelligent. Well, obviously, I could go on. You’re right, a day of reckoning is coming, but it’s not the one the tea party pansies are predicting, because they, for the most part, are incapable of getting out of and staying out debt… without the help of the government, of course.
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