Carlos Gaona

“Recent works on the organization of advertising agencies in Britain and the US show that advertisers' self-understanding, expertise and practices are geared to the agencies' imperative for self-promotion in competitive markets (Cronin 2004; Soar 2000). Drawing on Bourdieu's observations on `cultural intermediaries', Matthew Soar's (2000) research also shows that the first audience which advertising `creatives' have in mind is themselves (see also Nixon 2003).”
― Roberta Sassatelli, Consumer culture: history, theory and politics

“The skins of concentration camp prisoners, especially executed for this ghoulish purpose, had merely decorative value. They made, it was found, excellent lamp shades, several of which were expressly fitted up for Frau Ilse Koch, the wife of the commandant of Buchenwald and nicknamed by the inmates the “Bitch of Buchenwald.”*”
― William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

“What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually just the pretexts for it.”
― Miguel de Unamuno

“The Veblen effect comes into play when the function of consuming an object is to demonstrate the acquisitive power of the consumer so that - in open opposition to the utilitarian logic and the minimization of cost - the higher the cost of a product, the greater its display value.”
― Roberta Sassatelli, Consumer culture: history, theory and politics