consumerism: an art of manipulating and enjoying

I personally appreciate de Certeau's argument that consumers are not simply passive zombies taking in things; rather, they have agency, or action that carries out intended will. When analyzing media and consumerism, one typically looks solely at consumption as a type of production; however, it is eye opening to think of the "secondary production" -- what the users/consumers are doing with said product.

Consumerism can easily be viewed only in the sense of shopping and buying, advertisements, and media, but isn't the entire idea of consumerism reliant on the individual consumer? Most advertisements only support the purchase of the product, and leave out what one is to do with it. "As unrecognized producers, poets of their own acts, silent discoverers of their own paths in the jungle of functionalist rationality, consumers produce through their signifying practices...'indirect' or 'errant' trajectories obeying their own logic" (de Certeau xviii). Practices that an individual performs every day are taken into account by 'productivist technocracies' and are twisted to fit a mold that will sell.

Are "everyday practices that produce without capitalizing, that is, without taking control over time," such as reading and cooking, figments of our fleeting imagination? "The reader cannot protect himself against the erosion of time (while reading, he forgets himself and he forgets what he has read)" (de Certeau xxi).

Random thought: Do we partake in societal activities because we truly enjoy them or is it because they are advertised to be enjoyable things to do? Do we subconsciously or consciously create an image of an idea (manipulate), so we can better enjoy it?