The term planned obsolescence has some presence elsewhere in the academic and para-academic literature of the earlier 1950s. Marshall McLuhan, in The Mechanical Bride, characterized the nihilism of consumer society as “born of the social conditions of rapid turnover, planned obsolescence, and systematic change for its own sake” (McLuhan 1951, p. 13). Challenge, a periodical covering economic afairs, published a piece by economist Lawrence A. Abbott (1957) about “a new trick-of-the-trade: ‘planned obsolescence.’” In it, he explored the thought that “planned obsolescence can be real or psychologically induced,” with the former being a result of substantive progress, while the latter implying merely superficial changes in product form. Abbott’s summary of the dilemma consumers face when confronted by the specter of planned obsolescence is typical of mid-century concerns expressed about the practice: “Here is a real problem for consumers. Does obsolescence measure benefits in real goods or does it indicate the presence of waste and ineficiency? To put the matter bluntly, are we, as consumers, getting our money’s worth, or is business pulling one over on us?” (p. 33).
It was, however, through Packard’s book that the concept became a lightning rod for popular worries about the workings of the industrial economy. Packard’s prominence as a critic in mid-century America should not be underestimated. His polemics against industrial and commercial practices evidently hit a nerve with the public at large. Indeed, a lengthy 1964 Chicago Tribune portrait of the journalist went under the title “Vance Packard: Specialist in Touching Raw Nerves!”12 Between 1957 and 1960, he published three books, all of which made the New York Times best-seller list—The Hidden Persuaders (1957), The Status Seekers (1959), and The Waste Makers (1960). The Waste Makers stayed on the best-seller list for six weeks and quickly became the main reference point for discussions about the issues surrounding product obsolescence. Business ethicist Joseph Guiltinan (2009, p. 19), reminiscing in 2009 about the early stages of his career, writes, “when I first started teaching marketing [in the 1960s], Vance Packard’s criticisms of planned obsolescence were widely discussed by students and faculty. The prevailing view was that it was unethical to design products that would wear out ‘prematurely’ (i.e. have useful lives that were well below consumer expectations) particularly if they were costly to replace.” The ethics underlying GM’s strategy of style obsolescence, one of Packard’s targets, were also frequently questioned in the 1960s. Even business leaders in the car industry expressed qualms about the practice. For example, in response to the suggestion by a US auto executive, hired to help revive the fortunes of trouble British car manufacturer British Motor Holdings (BMC), that American practices of planned obsolescence should be introduced to the UK market, UK executives responded that such an approach would be “unfair to customers.”13
Moral Panic about Utility
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