Chronicles of Metaverse: Virtual Consumption in Capitalism

*Editor’s note: K-VIBE invites experts from various K-culture sectors to share their extraordinary discovery about the Korean culture.

By Noh Seok-joon (Master K-architect engineer)

Through the media, we often get a glimpse into the glamorous lives of the world’s super-rich. The media tells us how they made their money, how much they have, what kind of homes they live in, what cars they drive, and even how large and luxurious their newly purchased yachts are.

And we envy them. We yearn for their lavish lives and want to imitate them. This is the moment when we fall into the powerful collective hypnosis created by the media, that is, into the capitalist metaverse.

The content that best represents the capitalist metaverse is undoubtedly advertising. A capitalist society is a market-driven economic system where everything is determined by the market.

In order to achieve greater growth, the market creatively 'destroys' and develops technologies to constantly produce new products and services. The goods and services, produced almost indefinitely, compete in the market to encourage consumption.

Advertising creates seductive messages like, "This will make you happy and joyful, and it will give you the most enviable and fabulous life." These messages are condensed into virtual products, advertisements, which are designed to convince consumers.

In the capitalist advertising metaverse, the virtual actions presented by a small number of idealized models have no limits when it comes to consumption. They drive luxury cars, wear expensive watches, dress in high-end brands, and indulge in consuming gourmet food and drinks in luxurious spaces.

All these actions happen in a brief moment, but everyone who watches falls into it, dreaming of becoming just like them.

For this reason, in a capitalist society, virtual advertising products like luxury goods, cars, cosmetics, apartments, and more are endlessly produced through various media such as magazines, TV, and the internet.

This, in turn, is another metaverse that succinctly represents the capitalist world.

◇ The Capitalist Advertising Metaverse That Stimulates Desire

In the capitalist economic system, elements such as competition, wealth accumulation, corporations, consumption, production, markets, wealth measurement systems, numbers, statistics, and rankings are crucial. In the world of the capitalist advertising metaverse created by media such as TV or magazines, these elements are presented in their most extreme forms.

In other words, massive companies with vast scale and production capacity create an idealized world through the advertising metaverse to stimulate public consumption.

Film stars, singers, idols, and fashion models are all featured as perfect individuals with ideal appearances, models that everyone admires and envies, showcasing unimaginable wealth accumulation and extreme consumption.

Imagine this:

Jennie from BLACKPINK, called 'Human Chanel,' is dressed head to toe in Chanel while sipping Starbucks coffee at a luxury resort. Upon seeing this scene in an advertisement, we might fall into the illusion that by simply drinking Starbucks coffee, we too have become someone resembling the glamorous 'Human Chanel' Jennie.

▲ Blackpink's Jennie, captured from Clever & Chic YouTube channel. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

At the moment we consume the product, we fully join the virtual reality created by the advertising metaverse.

The virtual spaces created for consuming the many products produced in advertisements are also highly attractive. Advertisements create various spaces for dramatic effect. These spaces include glamorous cities, luxurious resorts, and even transcendent settings like ancient Greece or Rome.

They also transport us to different times, recreating past or future eras, or even transcend space itself, unfolding heavenly realms, deep seas, or outer space. There are no limits to where perfect consumption can take place.

Time, place, and the scale of the space are not that important. Whether it’s the driver's seat of a sports car, a smart office space, an ultra-luxury villa, a top-tier hotel, Parisian streets, or a resort—any place that can lure the public can become a space in the advertising metaverse.

In terms of scale, a car less than one pyeong in size is still part of the story when it’s a luxury sports car. An attractive man sitting in the driver's seat of the sports car, with a luxury watch on his wrist, makes the watch itself a luxury item.

The expensive luxury watch, with its splendid background and model, flaunts its value and lures consumers. Through this, the consumer is fully drawn into the metaverse world conveyed by the advertisement and eventually moves on to make a purchase in the real world.

And that's not all. The model’s 'smile,' filled with a sense of happiness, becomes the finishing touch of the advertising metaverse. Most advertisements featuring models always end with their beautiful and glamorous smiles.

◇ The Ultimate Purpose of Advertising in the Metaverse

All products are depicted very specifically through models, showing the happiness and satisfaction that consumers will gain from consuming them. This is because it stimulates and entices the consumer's emotions, leading them to engage in the act of consumption.

The ultimate goal of advertising is to bring the virtual actions that occur in the advertising metaverse into actual reality. To achieve this, the consumer must be made to focus on the models in the advertisement.

They need to pay attention to what clothes the model is wearing, what watch they are wearing, what car they are driving, what sofa they are sitting on, and what they are eating.

Thanks to the combination of the best spaces, models, fantastic images, and attractive smiles, the consumer does not miss any of these important visual elements, even in a short advertisement lasting just about 30 seconds. This enhances and strengthens the desire to consume the virtual reality presented in the advertisement, leading to actual consumption.

If money were unlimited like an endless spring and there were no need to worry about the depletion of Earth's resources or environmental pollution, humans would be able to make perfect purchases, buying everything they desire. This is the ultimate ideal presented by capitalism.

Capitalism realizes this perfect consumption environment—where everything desired can be bought—through the advertising metaverse.