CONSIGNED CREDIT AND ADVERTISING: THE NORMALIZATION OF INDEBTEDNESS AMONG THE ELDERLY POPULATION

Abstract

This article presents an approach to the normalization of elderly debt through payroll loans, which potentially perpetuates a system of exploitation and financial violence, considering a possible relationship between targeted advertising and the use of payroll loans. To this end, the theoretical perspective is based on important concepts such as hypervulnerability, payroll loan advertising, the socio-legal conception of the elderly, and symbolic power. Regarding the latter aspect, the study prioritizes Pierre Bourdieu's approach, as it is one of the central categories in his sociological theory. The main objective, based on Bourdieu's theoretical framework, is to understand the relationship between symbolic power, symbolic domination, habitus, field, and the symbolic capital of targeted advertising and the use of payroll loans by the elderly, and how this can impact the reproduction of social inequalities in an economic system marked by financial exploitation. As a methodological approach, the analysis prioritizes the integration of quantitative and qualitative research. The research techniques used were bibliographical and documentary. This symbolic power wielded by financial institutions, which hold various types of capital, favors the use of advertising as a strategy to serve their capitalist interests. These institutions have possibly been using advertising as a means of dominating the hypervulnerable, as evidenced both by Bourdieu's theorizing and by statistical data on debt and advertising campaigns targeting elderly retirees, beneficiaries, or pensioners. Thus, mechanisms of symbolic domination are perpetuated through payroll loans.