carnivalesque consumerism

"But for all of its studies and surveys, its rules and its white lab coats, the advertising of the 1950s was ill-attuned to the carnivalesque spirit that undergirds American consumerism.  Order and stability also meant stagnation and stasis, the direct opposite of the 'new and daring' that have long animated American affluence."  Thomas Frank, p. 49

In what sense is consumerism carnivalesque? 

• Maybe when we buy things to construct a masquerade?  That is to suggest that buying things to invent or to reinforce our identities is a masquerade.  Is that only possible when what we buy falls into the "non-use" function of the goods?  Or at least when we have means adequate to allow us to make those sorts of choices among available options?
• There is also the phenomenon of Black Friday sales which do seem to foster a sort of wild abandon consistent with carnival in medieval Florence or contemporary Rio.
• Is there another way?  Is he suggesting that American consumerism is inherently destabilizing of  social order?  If so, how?  Perhaps because "new money" can buy a person into a new social class.  Still I'm not entirely convinced because I observe that often consumer purchases are intended to consolidate as much as to disrupt one's social position.