Consumption disease: What is this delirium again around the purchase of vacuum on Amazon?
If nature seems to abhor a vacuum, this is certainly not the case with capitalism. If you get lost on Amazon, you may come across "Close up nothing" capsules, to offer "to those who already have everything", literally a capsule with ... nothing inside. 12.25 euros is still the price of the vacuum, because well, you might as well make some money anyway.
A product that, beyond making you want to raise the first red flag and put an end to uninhibited liberalism, is reminiscent of the sale of bottles of pure mountain air and other gems of the genre, such as this bag of nothing. But why are people willing to slap a dozen euros on empty space?
We reassure you, we understood that these were second-degree purchases and troll gifts to give to someone. Dominique Roux, professor of marketing at the University of Reims, brings these trinkets closer to contemporary art, including Marcel Duchamp's famous urinal, namely "nonconformism and distinction in relation to today's consumer society. "The objects associated with the sale of Close-ups on Amazon are also ... toilet brushes with the effigy of the Presidents of the Republic, the expert tells us, proof that what we buy here is less emptiness than the idea of subversion.
Consumption disease
Because precisely, why not sell them, nonconformism and subversion? Pascale Hébel, co-director of a marketing consulting company, notes: "Sobriety and consuming less are concepts in the age of time. There are naturally products riding on this trend. "In addition to books on deconsumption or minimalism, we therefore find just emptiness: "It can be socially important to offer something anyway, even to someone who advocates sobriety. Instead of offering him nothing, we offer him nothing".
Philippe Moati, director of the Society and Consumption Observatory, admires the tour de force: "Of course, the consumer buys it in the second degree, to denounce overconsumption. Nevertheless: he has just spent 10 euros for vacuum, and with an obvious waste of raw material on the packaging, plus the ecological problems of delivery. He therefore participates in what he condemns". Selling is cynical: there are no good or bad purchases, there are just purchases.
Elisabeth Tissier-Desbordes, professor of economics at the ESCP and specialist in consumer behavior, notes "the grip of the consumer society on individuals: you have to consume to denounce it. In the same way that we sell Che t-shirts, we sell objects in the glory of sobriety. »
Consumption disease cause
And when we ask why instead of slamming ten balls, we can't just take an empty cardboard box and offer it to our friend we want to troll, the teacher replies: "Because it would make you look like a cheapskate. It is necessary to put money, investment. Offering something without market value remains quite difficult to accept, even when we want to denounce capitalism. "The expert takes the example of flowers: we rarely offer those from our garden or our balcony, even if they were pretty. You have to pay to offer.
This is also the whole point of these packages: to give value and credit, even to the empty. It's the same principle with the air de Paris sold in a bottle by... Marcel Duchamp, definitely always in the right marketing moves, or the mountain air mentioned above. "Of course, we could fill an empty water bottle, which would be cheaper. But what certification would we have? Even the vacuum or the air, it must be certified," asks Elisabeth Tissier-Desbordes.
A packaging or packaging that allows in addition to giving a visual utility to the product: that of recalling the memory. "I am sure that no one opens the bottles of clean air," Dominique Roux says. But seeing the visual of the product reminds us of the past moment, like when we bring back a pebble or a shell from the beach. »
Consumption disease marketing
Just like "life always finds a way" in Jurassic Park, marketing always manages to sell: "We can see it well with the aviation or automotive sector. Very rarely do we imagine no longer making airplanes or cars for ecological reasons, we try to make them green transport. It is necessary to constantly sell", develops Pascale Hébel.
The same observation for Philippe Moati: "Traditional markets are saturated, so we have to find others. Even if it means selling empty space. "He takes the example of NFTs and the Metaverse, where it is a question – to be very rude - of selling objects that simply do not exist. "What matters is to create value, sales, trade. We always need new markets, for the machine to keep running, and even to grow," continues the expert.
Is there a limit to this, and don't we get to the end of the logic when we end up selling vacuum? "It's the market's own way: to sell us answers to needs that we wouldn't have even thought of without it," smiles Dominique Roux. Nevertheless, beware of indigestion warns Philippe Moati: "Beyond the militant demands, there is a loss of appetite for buying in the West. Most people already have so much, it loses its meaning, despite the efforts of marketing. "After the purchase of vacuum, the consumer may end up knowing the emptiness of buying.
