Obsolescence/Planned

• Planned Obsolescence
  • Planned obsolescence = intentionally shortening a product’s useful life (or making it feel outdated sooner) to encourage replacement and repeat sales. (Wikipedia)
  • Term history (very short):
    • 1932 (named explicitly): Bernard London’s pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence argued that shortening product lifetimes could stimulate economic demand during the Great Depression. (Wikimedia Commons)
    • 1925–1939 (often-cited early example): The Phoebus cartel in incandescent lightbulbs is widely cited as an industrial case where lifespan was standardized downward (often to ~1,000 hours), making it a classic planned-obsolescence story. (Wikipedia)
    • 1954 (popularized in design/marketing): Industrial designer Brooks Stevens framed planned obsolescence as “instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.” (Industrial Designers Society of America)
    • Late 1950s–1960s (turns into critique): Public backlash grew, and planned obsolescence became linked to “throwaway” consumer culture and manipulation-by-marketing critiques. (daily.jstor.org)