Production And Consumption In The Raw: Movie Analysis

By:Samailagi Poteki
Production and Consumption in the Raw
Substitution is present in our everyday lives, and maybe much more than we once thought. Marx's idea of commodity fetishism is loosely defined by substitutions, stand-ins, and clones of real objects and real labor. These commodities tape off and block out the public form the truth. In this essay I will peel back the label on some of these products and companies that have sold us lies time and time again. We are the martyr to the capitalist war. The book Tangled Routes will give examples that pertain to big companies and exploitation of workers in the capitalist movement. The films No Logo and Food Inc. will show how we relinquish to outside forces and let companies control our lives
Calculability at McDonald's has reduced both food and work to a mere number. McDonald's focuses on the quantity of food, the speed of service, and portion sizes. In ninety seconds, a McDonald's crew member is expected to complete the process of order taking, food preparation, and the order's delivery. McDonald's doesn't want to waste time, as wasted time is wasted money. To put this in perspective, McDonald's once gave paper and plastic recycling a try in their stores, but this practice was discontinued because when the numbers were added up, it became much cheaper to simply dispose of these materials. The third step in the process is predictability. Like most fast food chains, McDonald's employees are required to dress in uniform. Uniformity is also expected in the crew's behavior. McDonald's does the complete opposite of promoting diversity and creativity. The process of order taking even dehumanizes the employees, as they are expected to recite the same line car after car and customer after customer. If there is anything that McDonald's promotes to it's workers it is robotic conformity. It was ridiculous to me that workers were even trained to say “Would that be a Coke?” to cut two seconds from the
These films pulled back the veil on the processes of commodity production and consumption. Sometimes we as consumers don't open our eyes and by capitalism are hidden away of the truth behind consumer goods. We watched one film called No Logo that brought about the truth about branding and logos pertaining to our everyday products. The film was broken up into three sections which include no space, no choice, and no jobs. The first section, no space, focused on the advertisement overload in media. Branding took off in the industrialization period and has since gained popularity not only to companies, but has become attractive and seduced us as consumers. People have come to identify with brands more than actual products. Logos are comforting to us, and their product consistency builds our trust. Companies have evolved and come to a point of selling us a certain idea or lifestyle rather than the product itself. The second part of the film, no choice, explains how we see stores and companies as giving us more choices when it comes to products when in actuality there is less choice. These days brands are everywhere you turn. Logos decorate our homes, our streets and everything in between. There is no aspect of our lives that isn't open to the theater or brand. Logos and brands are intertwined into everything and everyone. The last part of the film, no jobs, explains how the quality of jobs has