I still remember how aghast my dad was when the Nike Swoosh became prominently displayed on apparel. “I can’t believe people are paying money to be walking advertisements!” he said in disbelief, “Nike should be paying them!”
No one bats an eye at such branding any longer. A brand stands not just for the product itself, it is a social signal, marketing not just the company, but the consumer.[i]
Fubu founder Daymond John reflects on how things have changed for companies, “Nowadays you shouldn’t have a company that is not contributing in some fashion or form or sense to a cause, because the people today who buy a product, they want to know what you have done for somebody else lately,”[ii] It’s not unusual for Daymond John and other investors on Shark Tank to pass on a company that lacks a bigger cause that signals the investor’s social consciousness.
As powerful as the Nike Swoosh was in signaling that the owner and wearer of the shoes and shirt in 1988 had the means to purchase the matching outfit, today’s signaling is even more potent. Packed into every purchase is a flare that is sent up.
We no longer just buy things. A choice to purchase your groceries at Whole Foods, to take your family to Chic-Fil-A, to wear Patagonia clothing, or eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream communicates a message. Brands are tripping over themselves to signal the loudest. M&M, Michelob, Paramount, and Logitech used the biggest platform and their most expensive ad slots at the Super Bowl to release pro LGBTQ+ ads. Just how important is this social signaling to these companies? We can put a price tag on it: $5.6M per 30 seconds. Companies have attached themselves to a number of social issues in the past several years including Black Lives Matter, and Me Too. The majority of corporations appear to support liberal causes, but there are those who utilize the same social strategy for conservative causes as well. Parler, a social media platform, has used conservative frustration with the liberal bent of Twitter and Facebook to gain traction, for instance.
We’ve come a long way. The choice we have as those living in a free-market society is unparalleled. Consider life 250 years ago. In the year 1771, there were only a handful of people on earth who could choose what meal they ate (most people ate primarily meager vegetarian diets along with cheese and intermittent game),[iii] what clothes they wore, what transportation they had, or what educational path they pursued. Today we make more choices in a week, maybe a day, than an 18th-century peasant made in a lifetime.
Lots of those choices are good. Consider the gift of choosing your spouse or your career. Aren’t you grateful for the incredible resources available to us to grow in our faith? Isn’t it incredible to be connected to Christians living in distant nations? Or to be able to worship with music written by Christians across the globe?
We don’t just consume. We signal. And we don’t just signal, we identify. The products we buy have incredible power in shaping our identity. As Jamie Smith riffed, “I shop therefore I am.” As the aphorism says, “you are what you eat.” Has that ever been more true than today? We are what we consume.
As we bring this consumer series to a close, let me offer one point of exhortation and one point of encouragement as we consider what it means that our consumption so deeply shapes our identity as inhabitants of 21st century America. To be faithful, we have to simultaneously push back on our identity as consumers, and also embrace our identity as consumers.
If we are to be shaped first by the gospel and not by our culture, we have to get our identity right. Our identity cannot be fundamentally formed by our consumeristic signaling. Woe to us when our identity is in any way anchored by the flotsam of cars and sports teams and hobbies and clothes and food. We, friends, are God’s image-bearers,[iv] sons of God,[v] united with Christ,[vi] part of his body,[vii] and raised by Christ himself![viii] When we grasp our identity as his children, then and only then we will be salty salt, the light of the world, and the city set on a hill.[ix]
But we are also consumers. To have life, we must be consumers of the true food. Jesus said to the crowds, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”[x] And “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”[xi] God made us to consume. We are created to desire, made to thirst. And God offers himself to us, the only one who can satisfy.
Our consumption and identity are transformed as we eat the true bread and drink the true wine. Our desires are simultaneously shaped and fulfilled in Christ. Christ, the bread of life will not leave us lifeless and passionless. On the contrary, our passions are whetted by him and directed toward him. We ought to long for his Kingdom and be unsatisfied by any substitute for his Word or his presence.
Consume, children of God, the true consumable. Eat that which satisfies. Drink that which quenches. As we consume the consuming fire we will find ourselves.
For more on the Consumers series, see:
Part 1: I Shop Therefore I Am
Part 2: The Odd Concept of Church Shopping
Part 3: Welcome to McChurch
Part 4: Consuming Worship
Part 5: Signaling Our Consumption
Photo credit: Eddie Lackmann/Unsplash
[i] Though certainly not the first to make the connection, I appreciated Trevin Wax’s thoughtful post on this topic.
[ii] http://www.businessinsider.com/daymond-john-lessons-from-shark-tank-2017-2
[iii] http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/tamara-griffiths/processed-food-hard-to-digest_b_4036592.html
[iv] Genesis 1:27
[v] Ephesians 1:5
[vi] 1 Corinthians 6:17
[vii] 1 Corinthians 12:27
[viii] Colossians 3:1-3
[ix] Matthew 5:11-16
[x] John 6:54
[xi] John 6:66