Makes You Think a little about all these new Ad campaigns

Today’s consumer culture is changing. This is obvious right? Though we are still emerged in a culture that is founded on the capitalism of yesterday we are beginning to see a new economic movement towards the merging of two seemingly opposing forces—consumption and charity.

Though capitalism is founded on the principle that the living you earn is for your own personal use the idea of sustainable consumption has taken hold and is beginning to change the way we think about buying. The joining of consumption and charity is a particularly interesting topic within the context of sustainability because it through the avenue of consumption that many sustainable projects have taken off.

Lets get down to earth for a minuet, literally. What I’m talking about is the fact that Starbucks, Wal-Mart and many other big corporate businesses as well as small businesses everywhere have begun to make considerable efforts to market their products as “sustainable.” Other times there is a certain percentage of your purchase that gets donated to a charity thus giving consumers the feeling that they are “doing there part” by buying certain product over others. In the simplest sense they are praying on our guilty conscience and making us feel like we can contribute to good causes by consuming.

So what’s the big deal? This is a little manipulative but ultimately it benefits those in need and the earth right? Well maybe. According to some people like Slavo Zizek, a noted philosopher and cultural theorist, this phenomenon is exactly what is keeping us from realizing the flaws of the current capitalist system. Basically we are bandaging a problem and putting it out of mind by doing small things that seem to help the problem. What happens then is that the problem doesn’t get fixed it only gets worse until it is too late and global warming is at our doorstep. It is an interesting conundrum. This illustrated version of Zizek’s argument helps put it all in perspective.