Advertising | Consumerism

With the way we consume media changing everyday, with new platforms - social or otherwise, apps and things, the fight for our time and attention is on. This fight is not only in terms of pure content but advertising in various means and forms. It's hard to imagine this world without a screaming 'Buy Now' button or a subtle 'this fits your lifestyle' especially with platforms like Instagram - even your friends are advertising products on behalf of the brands. And there is a resurgence of the physical form, magazines, hardcopy treated almost like it was nothing - more often than not landing up being disposed/incinerated.

Conscious consumerism is a lie. Small steps taken by thoughtful consumers—to recycle, to eat locally, to buy a blouse made of organic cotton instead of polyester—will not change the world. - Alden Wicker.

The truth is there are things that we will have to keep on buying, conscious or not, advertising will sway us from one brand to another, material, need, whatever. However, the most avid advertisers (the ones who have been making shitloads of money off us) will be the ones who shout the loudest, and yet, most of their things are not what we need, but perhaps what we want. One of the easiest ways to support sustainability, is to stop buying these things we want. Conscious consumerism is another form of consumerism.

Guilty as charged. I come from an advertising/marketing background and have helped sell certain products I would have never purchased for myself. But not all advertising is bad. Between the teams I've worked with, we've advertised for good too. One of my early formal advertising agencies I worked for, we worked with a green organization to bring awareness to the then - climate change. We won quite a few Cannes awards for that work. More recently in my last agency, we promoted a camera brand, but there was an angle to it where we focused quite a lot on photography with a purpose. Despite all that, it is true. There is no end to consumerism, no matter how good it is. How many cameras/lenses can I use at the same time?

On that note, there are many companies producing good quality products, charge you an exorbitant amount for it, but it is a green product, meaning as a conscious consumer, you should be buying those things. True to a certain extent. Using what you have is a far better choice or avoidance of the unnecessary would be perfect. Why buy a metal straw when you can do away with it completely? Yes, for some drinks perhaps it is a way better experience to have a straw, like Frappacinos (I'm only human) - so go get a Stojo. But limit yourself, buy the one. The biggest problem in consumerism is fashion and style as it makes you feel that one is not enough - it has to match your outfits, you may need one in your home, in your bag, at the office, that begins to become a bigger problem than tackling the disposables because you always need to reuse your reusable hundreds or thousands of times to make it more eco-friendly than the disposables you would have otherwise used.

Another example: One of the other issue where green products are concerned - Refills. They are touted as better than getting yet another plastic bottle of laundry detergent. If you truly want to be conscious, check if that refill station you're buying from has locally produced products and if not, how was it imported? Air-flown being the worst, land-transport being a little better. The carbon cost sometimes makes that other plastic bottle perhaps a little more palatable. Sustainability is cool, but not capitalising on Sustainability and selling you lies.

The bottom line - Avoiding advertising is impossible. It's everywhere. Almost anything can be advertising. It's in and is all forms of media. Some are good, some are bad and some are downright ugly. It has been a large part of my career and I've tried to avoid it too. But the choice is always in the hands of you, the consumer (me too).

To truly make a difference is to curb your enthusiasm for shopping, really take stock of what's truly important to you, and avoid consumerism completely. And that includes green products too. Minimalism essentially.

P. S. I'm this close to paying for YouTube Premium to cut ads out. For some reason, ever since they started to push for this, I've seen even more ads. Has anyone got this? Do you think it's worthwhile to subscribe to it? OMG, is this yet another form of unnecessary consumerism? This is not an ad. OR IS IT? SEND HALPS.