Light Bulb Conspiracy

The light bulb conspiracy was a very interesting documentary to watch as it gave us insight to how planned obsolescence came about in the 20^th century.  Planned obsolescence is the shortening of a products life cycle in order to maintain ongoing consumption and purchases by consumers, the beginning of consumerism.

Planned obsolescence surfaced during the 1920’s during the same time mass production of goods emerged. Bernard London tried to make planned obsolescence compulsory due to the great depression to achieve a balance in the economy but it was dismissed. It re emerged again during the 1950s but was applied differently; to “seduce the customers” into buying the latest product to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary...

The humble light bulb a symbol of ideas is used as an example in how planned obsolescence first started. A secret cartel gathered and agreed upon the shortening of the lifespan of the light bulb to 1000 hrs down from 2500hrs to increase sales and profit. At first I thought planned obsolesce was a good idea as it helped enormously during the economic crisis but after continually watching the documentary I was disturbed how even when the economy became stable planned obsolescence was stronger than ever; For the economy to grow not only to meet demand but to grow for the sake of growth.

Its sad to see how the old discarded products all end up in landfills in third world countries such as Ghana, even though this is illegal the the waste is exported as second hand goods for “storage”. The effects of planned obsolescence was clear in the second part of the video as it shows how its affecting the world.

The title of the video “light bulb conspiracy” is ironic as the light bulb a symbol for ideas was the first product to fall victim of planned obsolescence whereby it was redesigned to fail faster.