Conspicuous Consumption

Back in 1899, they had these things called hard-bound books. And some of these books were written by economists. Long story short, this Norwegian-American economist Thorstein Veblen wrote a book called The Theory of the Leisure Class. At the core of this book was an idea called conspicuous consumption, which says that certain consumers prefer to buy expensive items as a way to show off wealth and income instead of paying for things that they need to survive.

The term conspicuous consumption introduces the term “utility,” or usefulness and satisfying power of a product for a consumer. Economists refer to these expensive products as “Veblen” goods, named after the author, and they are put on display for the purposes of showing off economic power and social status. Examples include expensive cars like the Bentley or the Rolls Royce, or Rolex watches, or Tiffany silverware.

This term would eventually lead to other important terms like invidious consumption, which is the spending of money to provoke envy from people. Think about the pro football player who walks into a bar and starts throwing money in the air at the bartender while screaming “Don't you know who I am?”

It also introduced the term conspicuous compassion, which is the deliberate use of money for charity to generate social prestige. Think of any person whose name is on a building at the university you attend.

If the creative team at NBCUnviersal hadn’t come up with the name Bravo! for a television channel, “Conspicuous Consumption” or the CC Network would have been appropriate.