Musings: Consumer Veil Piercing

If you were to perform consumer veil piercing on yourself, what would you discover and what would be your ruling?

The other night, I met a corporate lawyer, and inquired what he thought of corporations’ legal status as a legal person—a topic whose eminent paradox has long fascinated me. Amid his responses to my inquiries, he alluded to corporate veil piercing: a legal move by courts to make shareholders liable for the actions committed by the corporation. Through corporate veil piercing, corporations are seemingly pressed to make ethical decisions whose consequences won’t fall into shareholders’ laps.

Similarly, I thought about brands’ personified existence as defined by advertisers and consumers, and when it’s necessary to commit consumer veil piercing—when the consumer is so liable for how a brand or product is consumed, that the long term effect is neither beneficial to society or the consumer’s health. For example, consumers who purchased SUVs from 2003’s tax break probably incurred deep expenses last year, during the gas price hike, that extended well beyond their tax break. As the government now encourages consumers to trade in their SUVs, and other vehicles, for hybrids, they will have to consider the long term value of a car versus its long term expense.

Brands, as intellectual property, aren’t responsible for their creation or physical outcomes. Ultimately, brands are personified avatar that represent one of many personalities of corporations, as well as a consumer’s need (it has a double purpose). As crowd sourcing utilizes social data and opinion to retrieve pertinent market data, consumers will be required to utilize an autonomous voice separate from their perceived consumption habits.

President Obama is the avatar for his campaign’s branding, however despite the visual appeal of the brand’s online presence, we’ll see the Obama avatar defined over the course of his administration. How we perceive the avatar depends on the subjective nature of his role in the polity, yes—but we have to separate the Obama campaign brand from the President, else we’re liable for our misinterpretation of the President as a lifestyle commodity rather than as a leader.

Other consumption habits that could be tailored to create new marketplaces, upon revealing if consumers require their presence, include fast food (versus the slow food movement) and mass production of clothing. Personally, I’d like to see a marketplace for seamstresses and tailors, where people re-purpose or transform their wardrobes into modern fashion. This could perpetuate fashion as a craft, where well-tailored clothing lasts longer yet fits uniquely to the individual. Or, with a slow food movement comes a stronger desire, perhaps, to invest in other products involving exercise, vacations (if fast food dining consumes a large chunk of the family budget), and cultural routes. Also, we’d perhaps see a decrease in the existence of fast food’s two vices: obesity and diabetes.

Yes, these are ethical decisions, but there’s always opportunity to invent a marketplace for new brands and products, as well as emerging technologies. Consumer veil piercing will position us to create new marketplaces around, say, active, productive lifestyles rather than ones whose mass-consumption have created inertia in our society’s progress towards sustainability.

- Melissa

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Hi,

Really interesting questions. As someone who tries to buy as much food
as possible directly from farmers, I agree with your social
statements, but I don’t know how to reverse cost externalization.

Maybe the first step is more transparency and information? Have you
seen how products in Sweden are now labeled with their carbon cost?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/world/europe/23degrees.html

You should definitely come by the anthrodesign meetup Monday night to
talk about these issues.

Monday, December 7th, 6:30pm
Bua | 122 Saint Marks Place [East Village]
L to 1st Ave/14th St; 6 to Astor Place

http://events.linkedin.com/NYC-Anthrodesign-Meetup/pub/177416

Have a great weekend,
Russ

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