Research shows that campaigns that try to make consumers feel guilty about the amount they waste often make things worse, not better. A new study poins the way to more effective anti-waste campaigns.
Having the right rucksack matters in the playground.
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When young adults create and share online content focused on consumer products, it can trigger a social comparison process that results in feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem.
The socialist traffic symbol Ampelmann, seen here in Berlin, constitutes an international brand empire. In the age of mass consumerism, what’s behind a nostalgia for socialist symbols and the sugarcoating of socialist regimes?
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Alberto Cardaci, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Catholic University of Milan
Under some circumstances, people may feel wealthier than they actually are and this makes them psychologically more prone to increase their spending, as well as their borrowing.
To survive the crisis, fashion companies are relying on new technologies. New players, new customer experience, big data – the whole sector is changing.
Queer Eye has made some strides. In this new version, the producers have addressed broader issues of gender, race, religion and politics than before. However, the show as before, showcases consumerism as the way to a better life.
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The new Queer Eye has viewers hooked on its emotional ride through men’s lives, aiming to embrace diversity and counter toxic masculinity. Yet its focus on consumerism threatens its lofty ideals.
Living alongside humans gets noisier all the time.
Katrina Burgers/Shutterstock.com
From the oil that makes your petrol, to car parts, to the groceries and other things in your weekly shop, retail consumerism is driving a boom in the amount of noise in the world’s oceans.
The Choose Love pop-up store in London set up to help refugees.
helprefugees.org/facebook
Materialism has an ugly face but it is here to stay. Rather than focusing efforts to diminish it we should utilise materialism to benefit wider society.
On Black Friday, November 24, outdoor retailer REI will close its stores and urge customers to #OptOutside. But a historian calls this popular campaign light green environmentalism at best.
“That strange desire to spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need.”
Zoriana Zaitseva/Shutterstock.com
Firms like Apple are known to inspire cult-like devotion among consumers. But it’s often less about the quality of the product and more about the emotional connection they create with their customers.
David O'Connor, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
Amazon.com and others are eager to fill the skies with drones delivering packages at all hours. Convenient, yes, but it could transform – and not in a good way – our ability to make informed choices.