consumerism

Dumbest packaging ever?

Posted 1 week 1 day ago by Andrea Dickson

Shopping, Lifestyle, Green Living, Consumer Affairs

I tend to believe that American consumers are savvier than advertisers and marketers give us credit for. That's why I don't understand why marketers waste so much time trying to sell us the same thing in a new box. Surely we know better than to fall for gimmicks like the insult to intelligence that I recently spotted in my local grocery store.

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Does living frugally hurt the economy?

Posted 16 weeks 5 days ago by Philip Brewer

Personal Finance, Frugal Living

Woman and child shopping

When I advocate for frugal living, people sometimes ask, "What if everybody lived like that?  Wouldn't it hurt the economy?"  My natural inclination toward frugal living may color my opinion, but I don't think so.  I think mass frugality would be good for the economy.

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Black Friday...black in more ways than one

Posted 40 weeks 6 days ago by Paul Michael

Consumer Affairs

sad

Today, November 23rd, is Black Friday. A day that as a Wisebread writer and bargain hunter I love. There are deals everywhere, we all get a chance to save a bit of dough before the Holidays, we all smile a bit more. At least, that's what I thought. But as I trudged around today in the sales, with lines of people looking more stressed than a factory farmed chicken, I realized that this day has increasingly become more of a black day on the calendar.

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Jettison the junk: why clutter clouds your mind and saps your energy

Posted 1 year 4 weeks ago by Andrea Dickson

Lifestyle

lots of junk

There's a man who lives down the street from me who's a big fan of dumpster diving. And by "fan" I mean, that's all he does. His back yard is a sea of garbage. He has 30 broken refrigerators on his giant back porch. His truck, which is parked in front of my house, is overflowing with discarded junk like broken baby strollers, cardboard boxes, paving stones, and dried out cans of paint. He's impoverished. Yet he has all this crap lying around.

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Packing it in - The Independent of London issues a challenge

Posted 1 year ago by Andrea Dickson

Filed Under: Shopping, Green Living

The Independent, one of my favorite news sources, has issued a challenge to (presumably European) consumers to reduce the amount of packaging that is used in everyday products. Apparently, an unneccessarily wrapped-n-packaged "swede" (turnip) set one of the Independent's writer's environmentally-conscious heart on fire at the supermarket, and so the newspaper is proposing that consumers...what, exactly?

Well, not much, to be honest. You're supposed to write in with information about superfluous packaging, and The Independent will take the store to task, somehow.

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5 people you never heard of who rocked your world

Posted 1 year ago by Will Chen

Filed Under: Extra Commentary

the alchemists

The Alchemists is a film about five people who transformed our culture by convincing us to adopt corporate slogans as a way of life. Consider:

  • Dan Wieden who, inspired by the last words of executed murderer Gary Gilmore, came up with the little phrase "Just Do It" and revolutionized advertising forever;
  • Lee Clow, who created the most-famous commercial in history by introducing Macintosh computers in "1984";
  • George Lois who single-handedly saved MTV from extinction with his trademark in-your-face celebrity campaign, "I WANT MY MTV!"
  • Phyllis K. Robinson who helped define the entire "me generation" with her liberating spin on selling Clairol ("It let's me be me.");
  • Hal Riney who got President Reagan re-elected.

According to the film's sponsors, this film is "not an analysis of the perils of consumerism and thought-control" but rather a documentary about "creative rebellion, and how all-powerful art springs forth from deeply personal, psychological sources and the need for change."

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