Sometimes marketers deliberately introduce obsolescence into their product strategy, with the objective of generating long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases.
Planned obsolescence was first developed in the 1920s and 1930s when mass production had opened every minute aspect of the production process to exacting analysis.
The phrase was first popularized in 1954 by Brooks Stevens, an American industrial designer, who defined it as: "Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary."
Arguments in defence of planned obsolescence see it as a necessary driving force behind innovation and economic growth.
However, even in a situation where planned obsolescence is appealing to both producer and consumer there can also be significant harm to society. Continuously replacing, rather than repairing products, creates more waste, pollution, and uses more natural resources.
Vance Packard describes the development of these techniques in his 1960 book The Waste Makers as:
"the systematic attempt of business to make us wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontented individuals."
I found Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff animation a really interesting but simplified version of the consumerist society we live in. http://www.storyofstuff.com/
