The Cultural Construction and Emotional Consumption of the "520" E-commerce Festival
Abstract
With the rapid development of e-commerce platforms, many ordinary dates have gradually changed into people's shopping festivals. This conceals a profound cultural logic behind it. This research tries to explore the inherent logic of the e-commerce platform's construction of the "520" e-commerce festival and the contradictory feelings of consumers about such e-commerce festivals. This study is based on the "invented tradition" theory and employs two research methods for a combined analysis. The research method uses text analysis to analyze and decode advertising slogans to show how businesses can shape a "sense of ritual" through time limitation and symbolism. At the same time, an online questionnaire survey was conducted among the target audience to find out their recognition of the "520" ritualistic feelings and the emotional pressure they experienced. The study found that commercial capital uses symbols and emotional bindings to rationalize consumption behavior and uses time-limited words to create anxiety. The questionnaire survey shows that although consumers have a strong agreement with the rituals, they also feel the pressure from society and experience emotional anxiety. This study finally pointed out that the "520" consumption festival is an "emotional ritual" built by the business system. Its inherent logic is to connect consumers' emotions to consumption, showing the mechanism of commercial operation of emotions in the digital age.
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