According to the French philosopherJean Baudrillard, commodities availablefor consumption are not inherentlynegative things. Baudrillard tried tointerpret consumption in modernsocieties by engaging with the 'cargomyth' prevalent among the indigenousMelanesian people living in the SouthPacific. The Melanesians did not knowwhat aeroplanes were. However, theysaw that these winged entitiesdescended from the air for white peopleand appeared to make them happy.They also noted that aeroplanes neverdescended for the Melanesian people.

The Melanesian natives noted that thewhite people had placed objects similarto the aeroplane on the ground. Theyconcluded that these objects wereattracting the aeroplanes in the air andbringing them to the ground. Through amagical process, the aeroplanes werebringing plenty to the white people andmaking them happy. The Melanesianpeople concluded that they would needto place objects that simulated theaeroplane on the ground and attractthem from the air. Baudrillard believesthat the cargo myth holds an importantanalogy for the ways in whichconsumers engage with objects ofconsumption.

According to Baudrillard, the modernconsumer "sets in place a whole arrayof sham objects, of characteristic signsof happiness, and then waits forhappiness to alight". For instance,modern consumers believe that they willget happiness if they buy the latestavailable version of a mobile phone orautomobile. However, consumptiondoes not usually lead to happiness.While consumers should ideally beblaming their heightened expectationsfor their lack of happiness, they blame the commodity instead.

They feel that they should have waitedfor the next version of a mobile phoneor automobile before buying the onethey did. The version they bought issomehow inferior and therefore cannotmake them happy. Baudrillard arguesthat consumers have replaced 'real'happiness with 'signs' of happiness.This results in the endless deferment ofthe arrival of total happiness.

In Baudrillard's words, "in everydaypractice, the blessings of consumptionare not experienced as resulting fromwork or from a production process; theyare experienced as a miracle". Modernconsumers view consumption in thesame magical way as the Melanesianpeople viewed the aeroplanes in thecargo myth. Television commercials alsopresent objects of consumption asmiracles. As a result, commoditiesappear to be distanced from the socialprocesses which lead to theirproduction. In effect, objects ofconsumption are divorced from thereality which produces them.