This is just a screenshot from Wikipedia that struck me as significant. It shows that people have been grumbling about consumerism for longer than we often give them credit.
It’s just that in 1961 it wasn’t rappers, but well-dressed high-society types talking Balzac, or whatever.
Longshot City 
March 29, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Mystification of advertising to associate fulfillment with objects. Yup, pretty well sums up 99% of the garbage thrown at my family. Bombarded really. billboards, sides of buses, commercials, before movie ads, previews, and just about everything they come in contact with is trying to get them to want something, buy something, need something.
It feels like we swim upstream trying to tell them that these slick multi-billion dollar industry hard sells, soft sells, and covert sells have the retailer’s desires as their only guide, but that we have their best interest at heart.
I already live on the edge of nowhere, but contemplate taking the final step to living in the middle of nowhere to attempt providing a space for the upbringing of kids where they are not commodity units of possible brand loyalty.
The push for adults is hard core, but have you watched kid television lately? All I want is 30 minutes of generally benign entertainment to allow for the creation of a home constructed meal of sufficient nutrient quality, but the best of shows are punctuated with slimy ads aimed at kids, even PBS is hawking things like juice (why chew fruit when you can gulp a sweet calorie dense liquid) and sugared cereals (frosted flakes are GREAT if you want a diabetic coma or a colon full of “stuff” that can’t move because the poor child lives on fiber free ceral and juice.)
Nice to know the realization that this stuff is potentially dangerous is not a new concept.