Czech Dream: A Glimpse of Change the Czech Society has Undertaken Since the 1980s.

Czech Dream is a documentary film directed by Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda. The film recorded a large-scale hoax on the consumers of the Czech Republic. The hoax consisted of an opening event to a fabricated hypermarket, Czech Dream. A hypermarket is a superstore which combines food and retail items to optimally satisfy all consumer shopping needs. Czech Dream reflects the drastic change consumerism in the Czech Republic since 1989. At the time, Klusák and Filip Remunda were film students at the University of Prague. Their final project was Czech Dream.

Czech Dream came to life through a massive advertisement campaign. The two directors posed as businessmen to persuade an advertisement and public relation agencies to participate in their experiment.

Marketing Czech Dream began with a series of focus groups. The responses given by the focus groups would be similar to Karl Marx hearing the sound of screeching fingernails down a classroom blackboard. In fact, a response given by a young girl was particularly stunning. After her mother described how their family hike was interrupted by her daughter’s impatience and temper, the daughter was relieved and most certainly content once at the hypermarket. She was then prompted with the questions, “Can you tell us about the relief? Can you describe it?” And she answered, “Well, it was like I don’t know, like it was raining all day and then I suddenly saw the sun come out.” Other responses further illustrated the powerful growth of modern Czech consumerism. When asked, “how did you spend your Saturdays together as a family before there were any malls?”, the instant response was laughter. Then comments followed such as, “At home”, “In the garden” and “We hardly remember what it was like before the hypermarkets.”

Previous to 1989, the Czech Republic had a command economy and consequently consumerism did not exist. Shortages and lack of product variety were common characteristics of the economy. However, the Czech Republic is credited with a successful transformation to a market economy. The economic growth rates of the Czech Republic are among the highest of Europe. The unavoidable presence of consumerism have resulted from prosperous economic growth: hypermarkets are sprouting throughout the country and the common Czech finds them submersed with advertisements. But is this what all Czechs envisioned before the transformation?

I am not not at all advocating the return to a command economy, but there is a need for regulations to prevent business, such as advertisement firms, from infringing the law. As the conclusion of the film indicates, such high levels of consumerism have drawbacks. The goal is not combat consumerism, but to target certain businesses that have bad practices. Check out these links:

Consumer Goods Advocacy Groups
Better Business Bureau
CCFC

Sources: Czech Dream,  Central & East European Politics by Wolchick and Curry, and Google Images