Abstract

This theoretical study explores the relation between marketing and consumption. This research questions the social ethics of marketing practices from a Kantian ethical perspective. The main argument is that marketing has far more influence on consumers than is commonly admitted due to the way marketers appropriate and deploy symbols and images from our popular culture in order to sell consumer products. In contemporary marketing, things are valued over people and people are treated as means rather than end-in violation of Kantian dictates. In short, marketing overemphasizes material culture. The negative social consequences of today's marketing practices are evidenced by such phenomena as the increasing rate of personal bankruptcies, massive credit card debt, new social ills such as shopping addictions and also social trends encouraging the conspicuous consumption of designer logos and name brands. In conclusion, marketing is argued to be a social problem because not only is it unethical and has negative socio-economic consequences, but also consumerism is found to be adversely affecting our construction of self and our social interactions.