"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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@laurenlacss-blog
Watch the second video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaPf4ZIbDVM More information visit: http://www.phonebloks.com Music by: Wake by Finn Riggins (www...
Definitely an interesting Idea! A new way to cut back on our electronic waste!
Is your life really all that bad?
Definitely puts things into perspective.
We really should re-consider what “quality of life” means!
I find this picture very real, sadly this is the way consumers think. We believe that the brand name is everything. Even though this blender isn't special, and its not a new innovative product, people will buy it, just because its made by apple.
We also see that consumers always want the latest new product. Most of the time, their phone or computer or other electronic device is in perfect shape, but since its not the newest version, its needlessly thrown away. Just to get the latest product, even though it is so much more money for practically the same thing.
Brand names greatly effect consumer choices. It goes back to the theory of whats "cool." If you have these products, you will be cooler and better then if you don't. I would just like to remind you, that your status is not determined by objects. Who you are is not altered by what you wear.
When I first saw this campaign, I did a double take. I thought that maybe someone on the internet had made the ad up, but nope. This was a real ad that Nike published.
Now let me just start of by saying that I am a big lover of the arts. Sports has never really been my thing, and art is where I found my inner self; where a lot of other kids do too. It’s really important to me. And so saying this on an ad is actually a pretty dense idea. I honestly have never had anything against sports, but saying that sports are more important than arts, just to sell more of your product? Not cool.
And can we just talk about how it says “son”? What is this? The 20th century?? I’m sure girls love sports and boys love arts too, right?
At first, I really did think that the person you are - your identity - influenced your consumer choices. And while that is definitely true, I also think that at the same time, your consumer choices create who you are. Let’s think about a mall (seriously the center of consumerism): When you walk into a mall, you naturally gravitate towards stores of your taste or stores that really appeal to you (remember: these are marketing strategies!). Many things can influence what you end up buying, but I feel like the biggest one is that you buy what you want to be. Companies have this way of making us think that stuff is important enough to define us, and guess what? We fell for it. Our world is so preoccupied in just stuff, that we often forget about the more important things. Things like what we love to do - basketball, music, art, dance, soccer - don’t even matter anymore, because money and the ‘stuff’ we get from it is literally the only thing that defines us anymore. IT’S JUST STUFF.
So that’s one thing, but this company is also selling the idea that their products will make you the best; that you will win at - basically everything. If you look in the bottom corner of the ad, it says “Raise a Champion.” This phrase literally screams “Nike is going to make your kid the best!!!” Seriously ? For example, if you think of some famous artists like Da Vinci…did he seriously have some magical brand-name paint brush that made him such an amazing artist? Yeah, didn’t think so. In the same way, why are brands in the sports industry labelling talent?
So even though we all know that buying Nike or some other sports brand isn’t going to make you into the next LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, everyone still buys it. And that’s because we are so wrapped up in this idea that stuff can define you in the best ways possible, that we forget….it’s never going to happen.
P.S. I have nothing against Nike! I just thought these ads were pretty lame.
P.P.S. Sorry about the blurriness of the ads, I couldn’t find any better quality versions!
Image #1 Source
Image #2 Source
Image #3 Source
http://everythingfunny.org/funny-captions/modern-family-classics/
Sometimes we there is a limited supply of something we don’t always make the best decisions.
I think I found this a lot funnier than its supposed to be. But I know that I am sometimes in this situation and I make the wrong decision. Sales, Supply, and Demand can definitely contribute to this
The economic continuum.
Planned, Mixed and Market economies, how are they different? How does the government affect us? These three economies have a wide range of government involvement. Planned Economies are under full government control, where Market Economies are under full citizen control. Mixed economies have a healthy balance of both government involvement, and citizen involvement. Some examples of each would be, Hunger Games for planned, Canada for Mixed, and USA for Market.
Fist off, lets talk about the Hunger Games. Now i know its purely fictional, but its a perfect example of a planned economy. Working together to achieve the Public good. Every district is in charge of one section. 1 is Luxury, 2 is masonry, 3 is general electronics, 4 is fishing, 5 is power, 6 is transportation, 7 is lumber, 8 is textiles, 9 is grain, 10 is livestock, 11 is agriculture, 12 is coal and 13 was in charge of nuclear weapons. All of these are fed into the capital and thats what keeps the system running. These Ideas are explored further here, ^http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/03/the_hunger_games_could_a_real_country_have_an_economy_like_panem_s_.html^
A mixed economy, such as Canada has some government control, and some citizen control. Since Canada isn't fictional, Its easier to explain this. Taxes. We pay taxes all the time to the government, in return, they give us social services. A main one would be healthcare. The USA's more market economy is similar to Canada's mixed economy, except it has a little less government involvement. The USA values working individually to achieve the Public good. Living in these two countries would definitely affect both your consumer choices, and your quality of life. In a planned economy you are used to the government doing everything for you. In a market economy, you have to do everything yourself.
I find it so ironic that on Thursday everyone sat around the table and gave thanks for what they already had, and on Friday people were trampling over others just to get to the new deals and sales.
Black Friday really brings out the consumerism in us all. Competition is a huge factor that plays a role in black friday. The competition among stores, to have the lowest prices and the competition among customers to get to those low prices.
Black Friday also reflects your values. The extent you go to get the deals, shows who you are as a person, and what you value as an individual. If you are shoving, pushing and trampling everyone to get the deals, It really represents how much you value new things at low prices.
“We no longer live life. We consume it.”
Vicki Robin
The union representing 8,500 Superstore workers in Alberta said it was unable to reach an agreement with Loblaw, Superstore's parent company, by the Sunday deadline.
I live near a superstore, and during the strike I didn't really know what was going on, after reading this article I am able to understand better.
I found something interesting when reading this article. It seemed almost people were boycotting superstore after seeing all the workers on strike. They lost a lot of customers during the strike, at the Macleod trail location, they had 5 lines open and running but no customers.
"I have friends who work at Superstore," said Shuan Sturby-Highfield, a shopper. "It's unfair that they should have to go on strike to get a fair wage so we just don't feel that shopping here is supporting them."
In the article they also talked about low prices, someone said that Walmart is the only other place other than superstore with the prices so low, but they treat their workers like crap too. If we are looking at morals, we shouldn't shop at either of these places. But the reality is, many people don't look at morals, they only care about money.
Along with this, I want to talk about the competition between stores. Quality, money and selection play a big role in competition. If the quality of the items are very high, they can price them high. If they are the only store, they can also have high prices, cause there is no competition. But the reality is, when it comes to simple products, like ones you would get from superstore or Walmart. Consumers care about price. thats all.
Basically
consumerism in just one picture!
Collaborative Consumption
Swapcity experience.
I had a mars bar and jelly bellies :)
I ended up leaving with them, cause everyone brought in lots of awesome stuff! I did not know how much people would bring in. But Jami gave me a tart anyway and Makenna gave me cookies :)
The idea of bartering, I think only works in a small group setting. Maybe bartering would be a cool idea for a market place on saturdays. But definitely not to hold up the whole Canadian economy. With bartering we would get no social services, and you are very limited because you depend on what everyone else has. With bartering our economy would become completely planned. This would greatly effect our consumer choices on what we trade, and the value we place on the items we trade. I could see already people were talking about the "value" in our own swapcity. Since we are so used to seeing a currency, we place a price. "I will trade this $30 dollars of candy, for your $30 dollars worth of books." Earlier, before we had money - bartering was the only form of currency, so you couldn't place a value, you had to figure it out yourself.
Canada vs. USA showdown
I watched Heather, Angel's, Kalindee's and Jessica's debate
USA- main point was its much cheaper, paying for everyone else's, waiting in line, day to day living is cheaper. more monopoly in Canada. INDIVIDUAL, market economy, when the government shut down USA kept running, Self sufficient, *vote, democracy, representation*
Canada- Gives more public services, Healthcare, thinking of a society. PUBLIC GOOD, mixed economy, Puts in more effort, relies on government. *vote, democracy, representation*
I had all the same pillars as side USA had :) except the monopoly point.
Heather said "everyone is voting" I disagree, everyone isn't voting. Actually only 61.1% of our country voted in the last federal election. They also spoke on how everyone is represented. But is everyone represented? I don't believe that the woman, who make up the majority of our population are, considering they only have 24% of the seats.
I personally still believe that Canada is the better country when it comes to answering the question of scarcity. But I do also believe that side USA made some extremely valid points!
All in all, both countries did an excellent job of supporting their case. Great job girls :)
GINS & Tumblr Mash Up.
The connection that I made, Is the transition from Afghanistan to America. In Afghanistan, Amir and Baba were the richest in the city. They had a huge house, slaves, lots of money, and they had everything they wanted. They had so much financial leverage, he went to school, he had running water and food on the table every morning, afternoon, and evening. Then, they went to America. They went from top of the chain to the bottom. They owned a cheap bus and had to go to the market every day to sell and buy goods. They had a small little apartment and next to no money. They were both so used to having everything handed to them, the transition completely changed their identity; and values.
In Afghanistan, Baba and Amir were part of a collective identity, they shared this identity with the people in their country. After they moved to America, a new collective had to be formed. They learned the ways of the market based economy America had formed. They struggled to find the money to meet their needs, so they bought and sold goods at the more traditional "market" on Saturdays. Here they found many other Afghans who had escaped from the Taliban's rain of terror. They were then able to rebuild their little collective.
Hassan never had the chance to go to school, he never learned to read or write. This is because he didn't get the chance to have an education. The Government in Afghanistan did not provide any social programs. Because no body paid taxes, so they didn't provide services. Therefore education was not free, and his family couldn't afford it. Education is one of the pillars to end poverty.
