The Consumer-Self

In the new age of self, not only the corporation but also the individual is given a different identity. Modern commercialism has played a significant role in converting the individual­self and the citizen­self into the consumer­self. The ideology of consumption consists of a value system that equates acquisition with self­realization: "We are living the period of the objects: that is, we live by their rhythm, according to their incessant cycles." ¹⁹⁵ Image, personality, and lifestyle advertising nourish the consumer­self as they invite us to "re­create ourselves every day, in accordance with an ideology based on property­where we are defined by our relationship to things, possessions, rather than to each other." ¹⁹⁶ In all of this, consumerist ideology insists upon the premise of freedom so critical to the traditional notions of citizenship: that we exercise "free choice" in realizing the consumer­self that we want to be. Hence, "We the People" become a consumer sovereignty.

The defenders of the old self find the development of the consumer­self as objectionable as that of the corporate­self. These defenders maintain that mass advertising in a capitalistic order actively "attempts to create and manipulate values" ¹⁹⁷ in ways compatible with profit­maximization. When people and their values are dictated in terms of profit, our system of expression moves away from commercial­free self­determination toward commercial­dependent self­ determination. As Jean Baudrillard powerfully puts it: "The entire discourse on consumption aims to transform the consumer into the Universal Being, the general, ideal, and final incarnation of the human species." ¹⁹⁸ That is why the defenders of the old self view commercial speech as "directly at odds with the aim of the [F]irst [A]mendment. It denigrates rather than affirms human liberty." ¹⁹⁹

This condemnation of commercial speech could be leveled even­handedly against all forms of advertising, whether informational or otherwise, as long as classified ads are placed by profit­seeking corporations. ²⁰⁰ In this respect, both proponents and opponents of commercial communication may see no need to distinguish between informational and imagistic advertising, although they arrive at different conclusions. The defenders of the old self, however, would be sympathetic to the model of classified communication, to the extent that it fosters a discourse that is more personalized and less mass­ oriented, more direct and less imagistic, and more economical and less extravagant­in short, discourse that is more individualized.

But is there really a place in the age of the new self for individualism divorced from commercialism?