Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3.
Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. The story of stuff Item Preview. Fertiliser run-off is nothing so poisonous as the toxics indicted in the ilm yet it is a massive pollutant of waterways.
The biggest agent of environmental degra- dation, however, is neither a toxic nor non-toxic chemical. It the covering over of land with concrete, brick and tarmac. The Story of Stuff effectively charts the dramatic explosion in consumption levels over the past few decades. In the latter case the ilm targets overconsumption in the USA in particular. This is true as far as it goes.
It ignores, however, the fast growing and already gi- gantic pressure from the new middle classes of the so-called industrialising countries. Delhi alone already registers some 1, new cars every day.
Even modest increase in consump- tion by the poorer groups has a massive impact because of their numbers. Perhaps the ilm might briely have made a more forceful point about the huge disparities within the USA, UK and their ilk. Before then, the working classes had got meagre crumbs off the tables of the plutocracy.
The unemployed had even less. A few privileged skilled workers might aspire to a small body of material possessions but paucity was the rule for the majority. It is no wonder that many people did not lock their door at night: they had nothing worth stealing!
Nothing needs to be said about their diet or housing. But, after , governments and businesses saw that citizens needed to be transformed into dutiful consumers to sustain economic expansion and accompany- ing proits. As pay packets expanded, advertising drove home the message of spend, spend, and spend again, making maximum use of what could be learned from psy- chology about human behaviour.
Even the calendar could be harnessed to create special days for which another bout of shopping is in order. Christ- mas is of course the shrine of high consumption. Marriage is another opportunity for massive spending wedding lists etc. The ilm also makes clear that consumption can become a treadmill on which satisfaction remains forever elusive. This is relected in the way sociological surveys routinely do not ind much correlation between material consumption and contentment.
That said, the ilm somewhat skates over the fact that many millions of really poor people would be safer, healthier and happier if they had access to the kind of things that even social security claimants and the like take for granted in countries like the UK. It is sometimes a bit too easy to sneer at consumerism when one is comfortable. Here The Age of Stuff lounders in soft populism. Firms like Coca-Cola will co-opt any sentiment — from racial harmony to world peace — to sell their ghastly drink.
Revolt can be turned into a stylistic statement and sales pitch. Images of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, for example, have ap- peared in adverts for products ranging from station wagons to ice creams. The media in general and advertising in particularly simply do not possess the capacity to brainwash their viewers, listeners and readers. Media audiences are highly selective in what they consume, how they interpret it and in what ways they act upon the mes- sages they receive.
To even get attention, let alone win customers, adverts have to relate to existing hopes, fears and other feelings amongst their recipients. They also carefully design the layout and colour schemes of their food outlets.
The food might be junk but it offers a comparative bargain for poorer people. Many factors are at work, not just the manipulative effects of clever marketing. On college trips, for example, they actively seek out fast food joints even when cheaper and more interesting alternatives are on offer. More generally, many people prove quite resistant to other kinds of advertising, not least healthier lifestyles.
Many ilms bomb at the box ofice despite the most careful promotion campaigns. Quite commonly, consumers remember the advert but cannot name the product being advertised. Frequently the most adverts achieve is a change of brand, not the manufacture of new consumers or higher levels of consumption amongst existing buyers.
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EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.
The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. Addeddate Identifier StoryOfStuff. Reviewer: yolotl - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 10, Subject: Cold fact I am surprise that so few people have seen this video that explains so clearly why we need a sustainable way of living,the facts are cold and irrefutable.
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