Fast and Vast:problems with USA consumption
***note. this is completely fictional.
It is seems redundant to say that in the USA mass produced goods are everywhere. It is a mass produced culture.
I recently left my home in Coimbatore, India for a brief trip to a souther part of North Carolina, where EVERYTHING, including the communities is mass produced.
And so, I come with at least one solution to this brutally habit. Throwing a sticker or label on something will not stop someone from buying it. This is evident with cigarette consumption, where money drives the pay of the label makers, and big bank corporations control the labeling, and branding of their product. So outsider labels are not affective because there is a gross convenience to large scale consumption that a small, practically un readable label does not expel.
My solution is a simple one of downsizing, starting with advertisement standards. In India, things are crowded, and fast. In the USA, things are fast, but vast. I propose that North Americans make billboards (a popular widespread form of advertisement) that are a smaller, simpler, and geared towards handmade or heirloom products. They could portray the maker with the product, or the processes and story that go into each product. They could decompose, or react with the environment or its potential user groups. This uncommon format will allude to diversity and an idiosyncratic individualism in the represented product that Americans crave. Billboards can shift the standards of mass advertisement and perhaps, overtime, this philosophy could trickle down into the greater purchasing patters of the US culture.
Category: Design Ethnography | Tags: Coimbatore, India, Overconsumption 2 comments »
October 4th, 2010 at 00:40
I am sitting in my car, post library, and it dawns on me that there is an opposite side to my solution that could be equally effective. Even as an addition to the first blog. And that is, advertising local or hand mades goods in the framework of a “normal” billboard. This could introduce the idea that not mass produced items, are just as available in the close range, thus convenient, market. It would open up access, or knowledge of the items that would otherwise perhaps go unknown to the general public. This is again, trying to cultural habits through advertisement at a colloquial level.
November 7th, 2010 at 17:02
America is the biggest socio-economic experiment to date, because of this I believe a large portion of Americans are truly distanced from themselves. Due to this distance Americans have become vulnerable, allowing for external sources to easily manipulate the them. I am not speaking generally as obviously this is not the case for everyone, but based on consumer statistics, America is in the lead. I am not speaking merely from general observation either, but a personal level as some of my American family are stuck in the same, destructive mindset. We have become desensitized from what is real and pure in this country.
Making advertisements for local goods is a nice gesture, working within the system that’s already been created is a tactical approach to change but I also believe that it’s truly effective to alter one’s environment by leading by example, in order to really put things into context. We need to find a beneficial medium. The entire west need to understand the seriousness of these issues. Standards need to be lowered. Local resources need to be utilized. Food need not be wasted. Trash cans should not be locked…