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• 1 2017-11-16T07:28:57-08:00 The Commodity Fetish 16 image_header 559221 2017-12-14T18:26:37-08:00

  Marx states that, “...articles of utility become commodities, only because they are products of the labour of private individuals…” (Marx). Through this perception he believes that the work and labor that is put into making something is what makes it valuable. He contrasts this idea to how society has begun to place emphasis on the value of objects themselves, giving the commodities an intrinsic value on their own with no thought as to how it came into existence.
   

  This focuses in on a key aspect of our culture today including consumerism and advertising. It creates the illusion, which in turn, becomes reality that these objects have value and power through the market of society. This fetish, is something that is created by people has control over people. These commodities contain enough power to create their own social forces in control of society. Through the commodity fetish, it can be inferred that humans are being reduced to exchangeable goods in the market which blurs the boundary between people and labor. This happens because of use-value and exchange value. Use-value is reflective on the worker’s labor and exchange-value is deals with goods that are exchanged for profit. 
  
  
  For example, advertisements work to create a vision and attach a value from what is gained from purchasing the product. This creates a “social process” as Marx describes it which can place a value in objects even before they are exchanged, but also place a value in the objects after the exchange. Marx also states that if commodities could talk they would say that, “Our use value may be a thing that interests men. It is no part of us as objects. What, however, does belong to us as objects, is our value,” (Marx). By this Marx emphasizes again the intrinsic value that humans place in objects. Humans are consumed by material things. In many ways the meaning behind this revolves around consumerism and advertising such as in the perfume ads. Perfume ads are well known for creating and emitting certain ideals and emotions to create an image the consumer finds appealing. This could be said for all forms of advertisement.