The consumer movement is an effort to promote consumer protection through an organized social movement, which is in many places led by consumer organizations. It advocates for the rights of consumers, especially when those rights are actively breached by the actions of corporations, governments, and other organizations that provide products and services to consumers. Consumer movements also commonly advocate for increased health and safety standards, honest information about products in advertising, and consumer representation in political bodies.
Term
The terms "consumer movement" and "consumerism" are not equivalent. The traditional use of the term "consumerism" is still practiced by contemporary consumer organizations refers to advancing consumer protection and can include legislators passing consumer protection laws, regulators policing these laws, educators who teach consumer policy, product testers who measure the extent to which products meet standards. These cooperative organizations supply products and services mindfully of consumer interest, as well as the consumer movement itself. The term "consumer movement" refers to only nonprofit advocacy groups and grassroots activism to promote consumer interest by reforming the practices of corporations or policies of the government, so the "consumer movement" is a subset of the discipline of "consumerism".
In the 1960s in the United States lobbyists of the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation began using the term "consumerism" to refer to the consumer movement in a derogatory and antagonistic way. This was an attempt to denigrate the general movement and the work of Esther Peterson in her role as Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs. Since that time, other people have confounded the term "consumerism" with the concepts of commercialism and materialism. Still, other people use "consumerism" to refer to a philosophy that the ever-expanding consumption of products is advantageous to the economy, and they contrast consumerism with the modern term "anti-consumerism" in opposition to the practice of over-consumption.
Ideological foundations Among the people whose ideas formed the basis of what became the consumer movement are the following: Thorstein Veblen, for introducing theories of advertising and the concept of conspicuous consumption Ellen Swallow Richards, for pioneering home economics as a science Herbert Hoover, for demanding product testing and a need for technical standards for products Upton Sinclair, for raising public interest in consumer protection Florence Kelley, for leading the National Consumers League Ralph Nader, for raising public awareness concerning automotive safety.
The event which historians recognize as launching the consumer movement was Frederick J. Schlink and Stuart Chase's publication of Your Money's Worth. The innovation which the publishing of this book brought about was the concept of product testing, which is the basis of the modern consumer movement.
United States Overview Waves of the Consumer Movement in the United States Period New marketplace features New media Popular concern Key people Key publications Key organizations Key legislation End of era 1900–1915 national distribution, product branding Newspaper, magazine Food safety, drug safety, stopping anti-competitive practices Upton Sinclair, Florence Kelley, Harvey Wiley The Jungle National Consumers League Pure Food and Drug Act, Wholesome Meat Act, Federal Trade Commission Act World War I 1920s–30s Mass production, home appliance, advertising using images Radio Criticism of advertising due to non-objective information, lack of representation in advertising regulation Stuart Chase, Frederick J. Schlink, Arthur Kallet, Colston Warne Your Money's Worth, 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs Consumers Union, Consumers' Research, rural electrical cooperative organizations Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Wheeler–Lea Act, Tugwell Bill World War II 1960s–70s Product proliferation, personal credit, complex new technology, greatly expanded international trade Television Safety standards, advertising's social impact, consumer redress for damage Ralph Nader, Esther Peterson, Michael Pertschuk, Sidney M. Wolfe Unsafe at Any Speed, The Poor Pay More Consumer Federation of America, Public Citizen, American Council on Consumer Interests National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, Truth in Lending Act, Consumer Product Safety Act, Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act Presidency of Ronald Reagan Early corporate opposition During the Recession of 1937–1938, public confidence in business was low and the new criticism from consumer groups weakened trust in advertising, media, and branded goods. The idea that the public were the "guinea pigs" on whom corporations tested products was an idea which spread after the publication of 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs, and industry sought to counter it and the general concept of consumer regulation over industry to restore market confidence. In 1938, Hearst Corporation ran an advertisement suggesting that people who purchase goods which were nationally distributed and advertised were not "guinea pigs", and from 1934 to 1939, Collier-Crowell executive Anna Steese Richardson toured to readers of Woman's Home Companion as an opponent of consumer groups and an advocate of corporate-managed equivalents of consumer organizations., citing
– book publication details lacking To compete with grassroots efforts, various other corporate interests likewise set up their own consumer information centers, including New York Herald Tribunes product-testing institute, McCall's institute explicitly designed to counter Consumers Union and Consumers' Research, Sears consumer outreach lectures, N. W. Ayer & Son's Institute on Consumer Relations, and Macy's Bureau of Standards, citing
Fulton Oursler of Macfadden Publications published stories in True Story and Liberty which praised advertising and denounced the consumer movement, and which George Sokolsky used as the basis for writing an "anti-guinea pig" book, The American Way of Life. McGovern uses the description "anti-guinea pig" to describe Sokolsky's book, and cites
In response to the trend of corporate movement into the field of consumer regulation of the marketplace, Robert Staughton Lynd spoke for consumer advocacy, stating that "the whole consumer movement can be aborted if the present plans of manufacturing and retailing trade associations to set up ... consumer pressure groups [are] allowed to go forward unchecked.", citing Eventually, industry and companies began to portray citizens and organizations who criticized corporations as un-American and Communist. Conservative business interests attempted to correlate traditional American values such as freedom with advertising while making Communist threats against consumer organizations and the consumer movement as a whole. Though these attacks were widespread, they were not generally successful in convincing the general public that consumer activism was a Communist plot, at least at the end of the 1930s. In the next two decades, the American public began to take "red-baiting" much more seriously.
Second consumer movement
Beginning in the 1960s–70s, scholars began to recognize "waves" of consumer activism, and much of the academic research on the consumer movement sorted it into "three waves of consumer activism". The first wave occurred at the start of the 20th century, the second wave in the 1920s and 1930s, and the third wave from the 1960s to the 1970s.
A number of factors contributed to the rise of the second consumer movement in the 1930s. The consumer activism of the early 1900s served as a foundation for the consumer movement that would follow in the 1930s and 1940s. The Great Depression also played a key role in igniting consumer concerns. As household finances grew tighter and consumers began to more carefully examine their commodities, Americans began to realize their poor quality and fraudulent advertising. American consumers relied on contemporary publications such as Your Money's Worth and 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs to expose fraud and misinformation from manufacturers and call for impartial product testing. These spawned consumer publications such as Consumers' Research and Consumers' Union which dedicated themselves to research and product testing to inform the consuming public. As these studies and exposes came to light, widespread support of a consumer's movement began to emerge. This included calls for higher food and commodity standards, consumer representation, and consumer education to teach responsible economic habits, as well as increased membership in consumer organizations, strikes, and consumer boycotts. Even those who opposed the second consumer movement, such as manufacturers and business professionals, began to recognize, in Lawrence B. Glickman's words, the "growing consumer consciousness" of the era. The broad interest in consumer issues led to several pieces of legislation being passed to create greater protections of quality and against fraudulent advertising, such the Tugwell Bill of 1933 which spawned more than a dozen other bills, like the Wheeler-Lea Act and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938. Women's groups in particular were influential in lobbying during the drafting of these reform bills.
National organization Historians generally recognize that there are two areas under the umbrella of the second consumer movement: the "professional consumer organizations" and the "social movement organizations." Consumers' Research was the first of the former, founded in 1928 by Frederick J. Schlink and Stuart Chase primarily to perform product testing and determine the accuracy of contemporary advertisements. The other type consumer organizations primarily focused on the social aspects of the movement, bringing together coalitions of educated consumers to take action. Unlike majority male scientists in organizations such as Consumers' Research that tested product quality in laboratory settings, women activists were the lifeblood of the social organizations, loudly organizing protests and information campaigns. A major example of one of these consumer organizations is the League of Women Shoppers, founded in 1935 by a group of women influenced by the meat boycott in New York City. Middle and upper class urban women of high social standings formed the majority of the organization. The women of the organization spread consumer information and encouraged the average citizen to become educated on labor as well as consumer issues. They also deployed their own pickets lines and "buyers' strikes" as well as supported African American boycotts, such as the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaigns that discouraged African American consumers from shopping at businesses that refused to hire black employees. Another of these social organizations was the General Federation of Women's Clubs, which boasted a membership of over 2 million spread among 15,000 clubs nationwide. While their operations were not limited to the consumer movement, they completed studies on consumer issues and created outlines for consumers to follow while purchasing and exercising consumer power.
Grassroots organization