ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the notion of the consumer as 'sucker', either as mindlessly manipulated by larger forces, or in less overly harsh terms as simply co-opted by the interests of corporations in consumer capitalism. It considers the 'savvy' or 'knowing' consumer that is to acknowledge their own awareness of being manipulated to varying extents by the mass media, social media, and corporations. The chapter illustrates the beginnings of youth cultures after the Second World War to the present day to see how some of these ideas pan out in terms of consumption, creativity, appropriation, and identity. If the post-war abundance of commodities, the emergence of retail psychology and the rise of impulse purchasing encourages us to touch and try products, actually buying them and taking them home brings us into different territory. In terms of ways of using, adapting, or modifying the goods imposed on us through consumer capitalism, Michel de Certeau introduces the term 'appropriation'.
