The second part of the Slade's "Made to Break" was a bit confusing for me. I understood the mention of radio in chapter 4 and the happenings of the 50's and 60's in chapter 6 but was completely lost in chapter 5 when he talked about the war, stockings, and houses.
Slade's main point is of planned obsolescence, which was talked about in my previous post. By the 60's, "death dating" was a new definition of planned obsolescence, and it would become the primary meaing of the phrase (p. 113). It was interesting to see the progression of radio (AM and FM), and how really the business (entrepreneurial) aspect of it spawned the whole process. David Sarnoff and Edwin Howard Armstrong had a really peculiar relationship. It felt like they were friends yet enemies, judging by how they affected each other's private lives (p. 85 with Armstrong marrying Sarnoff's secretary), but still had problems (p. 87 with legal battle). The intense fight over FM that included the move of the FM transmission bands which left 500,000 FM radios manufactured in American before the war inoperable (p. 103). Due to this factor as well as few others, Armstrong eventually broke in both the spirit and the physical, leading to his suicide in 1954 (p. 104). It was really sad to see the whole transition from a brilliant and determined genius to a desperate and pitiful man. Although it is hard to blame RCA and other businesses involved since they were looking out for their own good (which is that businesses do), it is also difficult to not blame them for leading Armstrong to his position at his end.
I understood what Slade was talking about in chapter 5, but did not quite get how they fit in with his idea of planned obsolescence. In chapter 4, he concluded the chapter by mentioning how (radio) product life spans were created by plan; it was not by coincidence that radios would need to be repaired or replaced, but rather, planned by the companies to generate more demand and revenue. Yet, in chapter 5, all Slade really talks about is how the war and the tensions between Japan (and its allies) and the United States led to the development of technological innovations. The nylon stockings were invented largely due to the fact that we wanted to damage Japan's economic state, hoping it would be for the better. I don't even have to mention why the atomic bombs were inveted and perfected. He seemed to make mention of how this could have led to mankind being obsolete on page 149, but was it really that bad? It seemed like a overkill.
Brooks Stevens was the most captivating guy mentioned in this part, in my opinion. He summarized and explained planned obsolescence in such a clear and concise way, I could not help but nod to myself. Although he was definitely not the first one to coin the term as he claimed, he was its "most vocal champion" (p. 152). He sums up the whole theory quite nicely on page 153, saying that planned obsolescence was the product of our desire to make money. The introduction of new products that will render the older ones obsolete is always done on purpose. People will want to own something "a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary," (p. 153) which basically illustrates why and how businesses can successfully penetrate their markets every time they introduce new products. I completely agreed with his view and was really curious to see how Slade would integrate this into his numerous examples within chapter 6.
Advertising was a huge part of the business models in the 60's and it helped to generate demand with every new product. It should be interesting to see if this method (which still exists today) was carried on from then on or another method caught on.
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