BBC Two Northern Ireland

The Men Who Made Us Spend

Jacques Peretti

Mike Radford

Dermot Caulfield

The Men Who Made Us Spend: Episode 1

Documentaries

Factual: Money

Factual: Consumer

Factual: History

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Episode 1

BBC Two - The Men Who Made Us Spend, Episode 1

Jacques Peretti reveals how consumerism is driven by an appetite for 'new' products.

Jacques Peretti investigates consumerism. This episode, Jacques looks at how consumerism is perpetually driven by product lifespans and 'upgrades'.

In the first of this three-part series investigating consumer spending, Jacques reveals how the concept of 'product lifespan' holds the key to our ever-churning consumerism.
 
Exploring the historical origin of planned obsolescence, when some of the world biggest electrical manufacturers formed a light bulb cartel in the 1920s, Jacques reveals how products that are essential to our modern lifestyles are still made to break. During his investigation, Jacques uncovers the process by which a crucial transformation happened and attitudes towards spending were transformed. Instead of needing new goods because our old ones were broken, we learned to want them for reasons of fashion and aspiration - awaking a consumer appetite that could never be satisfied.
 
In the US, he visits a recycling centre where brand-new high-tech goods are destroyed before they have even come out of the box.

Jacques also meets some of the companies that encourage consumers to be dissatisfied with what they have and encourage purchases as part of an ever-faster cycle of 'upgrades'. He asks a senior IKEA executive why, despite the company's commitment to sustainability, it still encourages repeated discarding and purchasing. Jacques also talks to a former senior Apple employee who reveals how the company's new focus on fashion, with its colourful iPhones, keeps us buying even when technological innovation slows.

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Why do we buy what we buy? Jacques Peretti investigates.

Why do we buy what we buy? Jacques Peretti investigates consumerism and the people who try and shape the public's appetites

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