OUGD501 // Branding lecture

The ID is deep in our unconscious, and we are unaware of it. It is the part of the brain that provides us with our animalistic desires, and it informs and drives everything that we do. It manifests in what we dream about, as when we are unconscious our instinctual desires that we may not be aware of come into play.
According to Freud, we retain violent, aggressive, and sexual instincts that we can't deny. We never really get the chance to act on the desires of the ID, as in our society such things are taboo, or morally wrong. In an animal's world such things can be carried out as there is no social conditioning or law.
If such instincts are met, we become content docile. WWI was a global form of these releases, as men took to extreme mass violence.
Edward Bernays translated Freud's theories into capitalism, and said if people buy things, maybe this will feed their instincts.
During the 20th century, consumerism came into the picture. Suddenly people's desires were being met by materialism; things they didn't need but wanted, such as fancy cars or cigarettes. These items were a substitute for the animalistic desires in the ID, as they made people feel powerful and liberated and made them appealing to others. It turned from a NEEDS culture into a DESIRES culture.

The way things were branded around the start of the 20th century were geared towards certain people with very particular selling points, eg cigarettes being sold to mostly men, as they were known as unfeminine for women to smoke.

Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour was a consumer, mass produced product (and still is) that made out to be a homemade product. It also tricks people into thinking they are creative by 'adding an egg' to the mixture, which instilled a sense of power.
Cars were brought into the consumer world as they became these unnecessary machines that kept improving and getting more complex. They were seen as making men feel masculine and in control. It gave them a feeling of being powerful over women, ie head of the house and driving them around. It was also a way of impressing women.