Since the 1920s, consumerism has been at the forefront of American society. However, in the last couple of decades, it has become more common for brands to use popular culture in their marketing. Pop culture and social media are drugs for consumerism, which seems to be taking over society more and more each year.

Let’s take last year’s release of Barbie for example. This movie was 2023’s pop culture moment of the year. Before and during the film’s release, a heap of brands released Barbie collections ranging from brands such as Kendra Scott, Fossil, Glow Recipe, and Crocs. Looking at the collaboration with Glow Recipe, no new products were released. Instead, Barbie was used as a marketing tool for the brand to have an uptick in sales.

Trends come and go much too quickly for brands to be creating new ones. Instead, various companies will use what’s popular to market already released products, just with a “fresh” take.

This is why consumerism and social media are entwined. With micro trends popping up every few months, this causes consumers to keep wanting more. These desires can be something material or not. In addition, celebrities and influencers play into this role of consumerism, some knowingly, others unknowingly. Many individuals feel cool knowing they have something their favorite celebrity loves or something with their favorite celebrity’s name on it. After all, think of how commonly a celebrity releases a line for a product that they aren’t invested in, and how much money they might get out of such a product.

Both consumerism and social media love to make things not truly the way they seem. A popular social media “aesthetic/trend” has been the clean girl aesthetic. This whole look focused on minimalism. Except, if one were to look at the types of brands these supposed “clean girls” shop at, they are nothing close to minimal financially. Brands which market products relating to popular trends are likely to sell ten times their products, just from their marketing.

After all, companies and their marketing teams are not dumb. They have the awareness that many (mainly the younger demographic), will do anything to hop on the current trend of the moment. Even if that means purchasing multiple of the same types of products, which consumerism loves.