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products that last – 17

products that last – 17

Expiration dates The epitome of linear product development is of course planned obsolescence, which is the opposite of any attempt to make products last. The principle dates back to the early 1920s, when an annual change of model in the bicycle and car industries was proposed as a way to nudge customers to keep on buying the latest model. In 1932, Bernard London introduced the expression “planned obsolescence” - as a way to reanimate the economy in the US after The Great Depression. His particular interpretation might even have justified his proposals. Industrial designer Brooks Stevens, on the other hand, popularised the term “planned obsoles-cence” in the 1950s specifically as a means to make customers purchase the latest designs. Commercial critic Vance Packard distinguished between London’s emotional obsolescence and the rational functional kinds, where products either break down after a predefined period of time or become too costly to be used economically.

Mythology has long surrounded this issue, and this was commented on by Dutch writer Karel van het Reve, who worked as a newspaper correspondent in the Soviet Union in 1967 and 1968. He wondered why Western industry benefited from the limited lifespan of light bulbs, whereas the light bulb lifespan was much shorter in Russia, where those involved in production couldn’t care less about repeat sales. He also observed something very peculiar: people in the Soviet Union were prepared to pay for light bulbs that no longer worked. As it turned out, they collected them to swap them for working light bulbs at the office i.e. get a functioning light bulb when you need it, without having to wait for state bureaucracy.

The abandoned house of the Bulgarian

communist party.