“THE JONESES” FILM
Synopsis of the film
The Joneses is a social commentary film depicting a consumerist society; it was written and directed by Randy T. Dinzler and Derrick Borte.
A seemingly perfect family of Steve and Kate, and their children Jenn and Mick, are the envy of their new suburb society filled with mansions and all the trappings of the middle class. Kate, with all the beauty and designer clothing, is the new pacesetter of a modern woman. Steve is a man blessed in all aspects—a successful business, a perfect family, and a luxurious lifestyle. Their kids rule their school with their head-to-toe and all-round designer products. In reality, the Joneses are a group of stealth marketers who are in the business of marketing and selling the products in their possession. All the lavish products they show off with (clothing, jewels, tech gadgets, cars) are not their own but belong to different companies that are pushing their products using the company the Joneses works for.
The Joneses family, using their marketing prowess, are pitching their products as the solution for the suburb’s boredom and dull lifestyle. Soon, every store and household in society is packed with the Joneses’ recommended products. As time goes, the Joneses’ life of pretense comes in conflict with their true desires and reality. Eventually, their fake lifestyle is exposed, and they had to leave the neighborhood and relocate to other areas continuing with their marketing strategy.
This paper debates about the Joneses, with the themes of the film forming a central aspect of the discussion.
Materialism
The primary motivating factor in the whole film is materialism—the desire to own flashy material things (Wellington, 2015). The entire marketing strategy of the Joneses company is built based on materialism. As the Joneses boss says,” you are here to sell a lifestyle…”. Their lifestyle is founded, driven, and determined by the kind of material things they own. Kate’s clothing lines, Steve’s modest gadgets and cars, Mick’s entertainment toys, and Jenn’s varieties of makeup are the things that define them. The Joneses neighbors are indulged, not by the Joneses’ personal or family values, but by the material things they possess—the house, the clothes, the drinks, the food, the cars, the drawings hanged on the walls.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a political philosophy and a self-declared materialist. In his 1970’s work titled “Leviathan,” he coined the phrase that physical matter is all there is. Materialism, in a broader definition, involves the focus on material possessions as opposed to moral values. In my opinion, an individual with a desire for material possessions is not at fault, but when those desires triumphs over moral values, it becomes a problem.
Lifestyle
The Joneses are in a business of selling a lifestyle, a lifestyle of luxurious possessions. As their boss (KC) put it, “as long as they want you, they’ll want your things.” The luxurious lifestyle the Joneses live is neither of their own making or permanent. Their lifestyle is funded by the company they work for, and it is available as long as they are employees. The wearables they have, the cars they drive, the money they spent, the consumables they take, and the house they live in are all properties of the company that employs them. If they were to leave the company, they would leave behind all these amenities. The Joneses lifestyle is envied around the neighborhood, up to a point where some neighbors have bought the same products as the Joneses. For example, Larry Symonds bought himself a brand new convertible car, just like Steve Jones; he also stockpiled his closet with new clothes that resemble Steve Jones.
Many times we do things that we are not satisfied with, for the sole purpose of seeking approval; decisions that we know well that we will be the only ones to be impacted by the consequences. An individual who recommends that you ought to buy a luxurious car, jewel, or a house, is not the one who will incur the costs of those products; we have to be analytical and contemplate both our choices and our possibilities. I’m not saying we should refrain from certain luxuries or peek into something more than we have, but we should be realistic with our abilities.
Peer Pressure
One of the driving forces in the Joneses’ sales growth is the peer pressure they are instilling in their neighbors and peers. Steve Jones, for example, offered Larry Symonds an expensive pair of earrings, challenging him that he ought to buy it for his lovely wife and that Mrs. Symonds will surely look good in them. Kate Jones, on the other hand, encouraged the salon owner (Billy) to ditch his faulty toilet and buy one from Kate Jones supplier, whereas Jenn Jones is showcasing her luxurious wearing in school, forcing her school mates to emulate her grooming.
Behavior and lifestyle have a profound impact on our societies. People tend to quickly get influenced by the lifestyle of their peers, up to the point of adopting those lifestyles. Peer pressure is a direct influence of others to change their attitudes, behaviors, or lifestyle to conform to the influencer’s way of life (Wellington, 2015). Peer pressure can both be positive and negative. Positive peer pressure results in a positive result; for example, a student who is motivated to get good grades because his peers/friends are getting good grades. Negative lifestyle negatively impacts a conformer; for example, an individual who is motivated to adopt a luxurious lifestyle that is way beyond their means.
Greed
The founding and driving aspect in the Joneses film is greed, the greed of the company, and its members (such as the Joneses). The company happily engages in every and any act to drive up sales of its products. As the Joneses’ boss (KC) put it, “as long as we get results, how we go about achieving them is irrelevant”; in addition, she opines that what is relevant is how far someone is willing to go to get what they want. This greed also manifests itself through Joneses’ neighbors, who deeply envy the lifestyle of the Joneses. Larry Symonds, for example, spent extravagantly until his family runs into debts, resulting in him committing suicide due to the depression.
Greed is the desire to acquire more and more of something (especially power and wealth) that may not necessarily be of need, to the detriment of others. Perhaps the most infamous greed in American history is Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme. Bernie Madoff was the owner and advisor of a financial investment company and a past chairman of NASDAQ; he solicited money investments from his investors, promising them higher returns. Instead of investing, Bernie Madoff pocketed the investors’ money, issuing them manipulated financial statements showing “gains.” At the end of the scheme, Bernie Madoff had swindled around $65 billion off his fellow investors.
Deceit and pretense
The central theme of this film is deceit and pretense. Every member of the Joneses family is living a life of deception, right from their identities, jobs, and way of life. Members of the Jones’ family don’t even know each other’s real names and backgrounds. The Joneses’ lifestyle has negatively motivated its neighbors to adopt a fake life too; for example, the Symonds are adopting a fake lifestyle that is beyond their means. Larry Symonds spent a huge junk of the family’s wealth buying luxurious products (such as cars and clothing), up to a point where their house is at risk of being taken over due to debts; all these just to appear good in the eyes of his peers.
Most people live a life of pretense, some are necessitated to do so, and some do so out of their dissatisfaction with their real life. Fake lifestyle out of necessity is justified in my opinion; for example, an individual with a limited time to live due to an incurable underlying disease, may fake and lie of their illness to protect their loved ones from unnecessary worries. A life of pretense that is precipitated by the dissatisfaction of oneself life is generally necessitated by the need to appear suitable in the eyes of the others or to appease their inner desires.
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force that influences an individual to take a specific action or adapt to a particular behavior. This theme is depicted in the film, where the Joneses’ neighbors are positively motivated to seek self-actualization and elevated status, by embracing the extravagance way of life of the Jones family. The neighbors are motivated to the point of buying the same products and adapting the same lifestyle as the Joneses.
Two types of motivations are portrayed in the film: internal and external motivation. Internal motivation is the motivation from within an individual (Jamal, Foxall & Evans, 2009). The Symonds, seeing how the Joneses live their life, are driven by their inner desires of the same lifestyle that is supposedly characterized by happiness, stability, and self-fulfillments. They are motivated enough to try acquiring this kind of lifestyle, believing that it’s the solution to their unhappiness and instability. In their skewed marketing strategy, members of the Joneses family are internally motivated by their desires to register more sales. External motivation is derived from the environment or the society one lives in (Jamal, Foxall & Evans, 2009). The external motivating factor behind the Joneses lifestyles is the need to appear extraordinary in the eyes of their neighbors; the more exceptional they look, the more interest their neighbors have in them, and the more attention their products attract.
Marketing Strategies
This film covers several topics that are essential to marketing, some of which are ethically questionable. Marketing topics illustrated in this film include: the aspect of how to connect to the consumer; and the approaches business entities employ to sell their products or services. In the movie, three consumer segmentation manifests: demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and segmentations (Jamal, Foxall & Evans, 2009).
Demographic—This segmentation is represented by age, gender, family size, occupation, race (Jamal, Foxall & Evans, 2009). In this film, it could be argued that demographic segmentation manifests in two ways; the first is that the supposed family moves to a society of high economic resources to be able to show off the comforts and luxuries they possessed and thus get the neighbors to acquire them as well, the second is that each member of the family shows off their support and luxuries in different places with people of different ages and different genders. This showing off made the “family’s” neighbors desire the luxurious amenities, and in the process, acquired them.
Psychographic segmentation—This segmentation is signified by personality, lifestyle, values, beliefs, attitudes (Jamal, Foxall & Evans, 2009). In the film, it could be seen that besides appearing to be happy, the Joneses possessed valuable and expensive things; the image projected out of this made the “family” stood out in the society. Through this image, the people around the family got the idea that they must have the same things (adapting to family’s lifestyle, beliefs, and attitudes) to be happy, and that was the intention of the fake family—motivate them to buy their products.
Behavioral Targeting—This targeting is symbolized by the uses of a product (Jamal, Foxall & Evans, 2009). Through all the luxurious products they possess, the fake family gives an image of a stand out social and economic status; resultantly, the neighbors think that they need to own the same luxurious products to have an elevated status like the supposed family. The neighbors started buying the products, some even to the point of bankruptcy.
References
Hobbes, T. (1970). Leviathan (1651). Glasgow 1974.
Jamal, A., Foxall, G. R., & Evans, M. J. (2009). Consumer Behavior.
Parsons, E., Maclaran, P., & Chatzidakis, A. (2017). Contemporary issues in marketing and consumer behavior. Routledge.
Wellington, J. (2015). Educational research: Contemporary issues and practical approaches. Bloomsbury Publishing.