Society of the Spectacle

By looking at the title of this text, readers are given a hint of what Guy Debord is about to delve into. “Society of the Spectacle” looks at what society had turned into, even back in the late 60s. We live in a society obsessed with products, or “spectacles”, things that are advertised as necessity but in reality, are just luxuries. While Debord wrote this in the 60s, it’s a text that is probably even more relevant today because of how far the “spectacle” has gone. Additionally, celebrity culture and celebrity news is at the forefront of mainstream media. It’s fitting to discuss society of the spectacle the same week that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie get divorced, and the coverage that story received was massive, even making it to CNN.

“The spectacle is the moment when the commodity has attained the total occupation of social life. Not only is the relation to the commodity visible but it is all one sees: the world one sees is its world” (Debord, “Society of the Spectacle”). This is an idea that is explored in “Fight Club”, a consumer society is why Tyler Durden creates fight club and seeks to “reset” the world. He feels that people’s lives have been taking over by the “spectacle”, people define themselves by the contents of their wallets or what car they drive.

The messages Tyler Durden conveyed in Fight Club were anti-consumerism

Reading “Society of the spectacle” also reminds me of the concept of keeping up with the Joneses. No matter what standard of living you have, you have to be able to keep up to the socio-economic levels of your neighbors. A perfect modern example would be the iPhone. Every year Apple comes out with a new and apparently improved phone, and people flock to the stores to purchase them, despite only purchasing the latest phone the previous year. Keeping up with society by having the latest gadget is trendy.

“The celebrity, the spectacular representation of a living human being, embodies this banality by embodying the image of a possible role. Being a star means specializing in the seemingly lived; the star is the object of identification with the shallow seeming life that has to compensate for the fragmented productive specializations which are actually lived” (Debord). This further emphasizes how society has become a celebrity obsessed culture. It is the reason “media” like TMZ exists, as hardly any of their works are actually worthwhile journalism.

“Every given commodity fights for itself, cannot acknowledge the others, and attempts to impose itself everywhere as if it were the only one” (Debord). Each commodity has to sell itself in a unique way. Part of the fascination with the superbowl is what advertisements are going to be shown during the game. It’s a hot topic, and viewers will argue over who had the best ad. Geico basically has advertisements that has nothing to do with their product or service. Some of their ads have the same message as their company, and some are completely unrelated. However, because they have witty and funny ads, people remember the product.

Geico is famous for creating bizarre and memorable commercials

Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone, 1995.