Consumerism...whats it all about?

A session on Ethics today has got me thinking hard about consumerism. What goes on in the industry and how are we the "consumer" driving the decisions made by companies? Is it our fault?

First of all what exactly is consumerism? The definition according to the Oxford dictionary states that it is:

1: the protection or promotion of the interests of consumers: the growth of consumerism has led to many organizations improving their service to the customer

2(often derogatory): the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods: many people are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of consumerism
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/consumerism)

I favour the latter definition, the fact that it uses "derogatory" and "preoccupation" definitely depict the description I feel most would agree with, consumerism is basically how caught up we all are in having/owning/buying "stuff" (consumer goods).

 The questions I'm asking myself are why is it that the world we live in today has us all obsessed with what we have? Has it always been this way? Is it true that we now equate personal happiness with material possessions? And, if so, who is responsible for promoting this way of thinking?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/145_consumerism/

Lets have a think about advertising, how do clothes/ fashion and beauty advertisements and magazines make you feel? I'm guessing usually pretty rubbish if you're anything like most people out there, and I'm not just talking about women here. This, believe it or not is their aim.

Companies advertise to sell. Their aim is to make us believe that their product is a "must have", that it will improve our lives and make us feel better about ourselves. Images contribute to this as well as words. Images of "perfection", slim builds, perfect skin, perfect lifestyles all amount to make us want to buy into something, will it work or is the reality quite simply that something so trivial cannot amount to happiness?

Advertising decides what is "hot right now" and puts that out there for us to follow, however it is our, "the consumer's", decision whether or not we choose to follow that.

Is it wrong/ unethical of us to follow and then buy the product? or is this what we need to do in order to survive?

I'm just provoking thoughts here, take a look at these debates, which do you agree with?

http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-consumerism-ethical

http://debatewise.org/debates/345-consumerism/

http://www.theguardian.com/starbucks-ethical-living/ethical-consumer-debate