MYTH-MAKING IN THE CONSUMER CULTURE

The article attempts to study the myth as an important element of the social life of a modern person. The subject of the study is the practice of consumerism, in which the authors have found features inherent in mythological consciousness. The relevance of the research is due to the importance of analyzing consumer society and the degree of influence of consumer markets on the consciousness of a modern person. The data obtained in social and cultural anthropology, as well as in management theory, are used as the research material. The authors investigate the distribution practices used by companies in the Russian market, in particular, the transformation of technology from an auxiliary device into an independent object of desire. Such a consumer inversion evokes associations with the expectation of a miracle, characteristic of the mass consciousness of previous historical eras. The authors study the practices of actualization by companies of the suggestive potential of the language of social communication, the prototype of which is the language of myth. The myth is considered as a universal code of culture that performs the functions of integrating social and cultural experience. In the conditions of the dominance of economic rationality and the consumer market, consumer behavior acts as an analogue of magical practices associated with the search for a “talisman”. The authors come to the conclusion that the mythological image of the product in the consumer’s mind takes on the appearance of a brand. The consumer, giving preference to a certain brand, realizes the symbolic need to structure his living space. The study of myth-making in modern popular culture clarifies the psychological and anthropological prerequisites of buyer preferences in the market of goods and services.