Wow! Pepsi!

Okay, so I might be late on the topic of this, but I was there when the packages started changing and the new Pepsi logo and brand appeared. I remember standing in Smith's Grocery Store on 400 South in Salt Lake debating whether it was a good idea or not.

At first I didn't like it. Too minimalist and 50s/60s for a drinks company. But, it was then pointed out to me, that it stands out from every other drink on the shelf. And it truly does.

While Coca-Cola are going for as much detail as possible, with swirls, fake droplets and visual stimuli galore, Pepsi are giving us a break, keeping it plain, recognisable, and less cluttered.

What it says to me is, chose me, drink me, I won't give you a headache if you look at the can too long.



My one and only qualm now is that the E has a Pepsi swirl in it. That seems like the doing of some marketer or account handler and not the creative who designed it though. It seems out of place and doesn't do anything. No adding or taking away from the brand.

On top of the new logo/bottle/can there are fantastic billboard posters with strong block colours, and large type. I love type. The words Wow, Lol, Awesome etc etc are written as big as they can fit with the pepsi logo sitting in place for the letter O. Enough said. Again, it's an advertising campaign that doesn't overwhelm you. You know what it is, you know what they're saying, everything is clear – there's no need to go all Cluedo about it and stress your brain out trying to piece things together.

My theory is that this the beginning of a new cycle. Gone is the mystery, here comes the answer on a Pepsi-Platter.

Here are the billboards combined into a fantastic flash or after effects video.



I would dare say that this is one of the most 'refreshing' pieces of design ever. The entire idea and concept is phenomonal, and then to coincide and use the refreshing of America because of their new president is just a genius piece of marketing. It's simple. Everything gets changed – everything gets refreshed. It was time for change, and everything is.

To take it further you should check out their Pepsi site, their microsite, and their youtube site.

Facebook is the New Coca Cola

The other day I was reading an article in a business magazine and they were trying to predict trends and wax financial about the future of the economy and what would replace the things we already have in society.

One of the questions was about someone trying to predict or create what comes after facebook.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I have come to realise that my prediction, in this whole affair, is that nothing is going to come after facebook. Well not nothing, there will be things invented and created i'm sure, but nothing is going to over take it.

Here is my reasoning, and we're going to mention MySpace and Bebo and frienster and Hi5 and every other failed networking site as well. MySpace used to be the best thing on the internet. But nothing changed, nothing was updated, nothing was new, there was no user to client contact and thus no improvements in the service (and still, there's no new beneficial improvement; all the new things we saw on facebook a year before).

I'm not the biggest fan of facebook, which you wouldn't guess considering the amount of hours I spend on it. The reason I'm not a fan is the amount of hours. It has me trapped, I want to know if someone has posted new pictures, I want to know if so and so is attending the event I'm thinking of going to, I want to know how my friends are doing and what they are up to all day.

I find myself refreshing the page, just in case, about a million times a day. It's now a habit. Those are my reasons for not liking it. I also fear that it will get too big, that there will be too much information and we will all explode from an information over-load. My other beef with social networking sites in general is that they mess with the general order and natural cycle of friends. I can now stay in touch with the people that bullied me in high school, or the people that I knew when i was 5 years old and I could still play out in the street and not get kidnapped.

But back to my theory. Myspace has never changed, it was replaced, and now, rather than realise that it is actually used for music more than networking, it continues to wriggle the knife further into its own heart. It's time it reinvented itself and came up with new ideas rathe than ideas pinched from facebook.

Facebook on the other hand updated their site, changed the layout, realised there was a problem with information display and did something about it. At first people could choose to change sites, eventually everyone had to. And they had the attitude of 'you will get used to it' when people moaned and complained. Now, I quite like it. people hate change, but once they know it for it a while they won't remember what was before. And that is what they knew and what they did.

The people behind facebook and who are working constantly on facebook are not stupid, they are smart, and they know how to stay alive. If they had just left things the way they were all myspace hell might have broken loose and they would be burried in the dust like friendster and hi5.

So my theory is that facebook is going to be like coca-cola, it's not going anywhere. It will have competetors, there will be cheaper versions, but it will always capture the main market, and it's not because the product has every changed. No, it has always tasted the same, just the marketing and the look changed. The logo progressed, the advertising was clever, and always different.

So as long as facebook keeps the product the same, ie. makes sure it's ALWAYS a social networking site that is easy to use and clutter free, but changes the look to keep up with technology then my bet is that it's not going anywhere, and that it will become a brand like Apple, McDonalds, Nike and Coca Cola.

How Do You Get Great Ideas?

Ideo are a design company that I hold in high regard. If Fabrica would ever reply to me I would be applying for jobs with them... or doing my masters in design writing in New Yoik.

Anyway.

I just downloaded a widget that asks a new question every day.

Today's question is: How do you get great ideas?

The grammar seems a little incorrect, but who am I to judge?

My thoughts are: that great ideas are not gotten. They do not just appear. They are not something that wakes you up in the middle of the night and by morning you are done masterminding your ideas.

A great idea is something that grew from an idea.

I'm going to use a quick and partially appropriate metaphor. It is like (or a simile if you're Ed Byrne) the Great Wall of China. It is great. It started with an idea, it started with a thought, it started with one brick, and one pair of hands, followed by many thousands of others. There was one person though that laid the first stone/brick.

And then as the chinese proverb says 'Many hand make right wolk.'

That's what an idea is. It's not something forced, and more importantly it comes from the want to fulfill and need (rather than the need to fulfill a want).

That is how great ideas come to be. From one thought, that is built on over time, and developed by other people to the point of it becoming great. More than likely your 'Great Idea' will far succeed your own meandering existence.

How do you get Great Ideas?

Ideo are a design company that I hold in high regard. If Fabrica would ever reply to me I would be applying for jobs with them... or doing my masters in design writing in New Yoik.

Anyway.

I just downloaded a widget that asks a new question every day.

Today's question is: How do you get great ideas?

The grammar seems a little incorrect, but who am I to judge?

My thoughts are: that great ideas are not gotten. They do not just appear. They are not something that wakes you up in the middle of the night and by morning you are done masterminding your ideas.

A great idea is something that grew from an idea.

I'm going to use a quick and partially appropriate metaphor. It is like (or a simile if you're Ed Byrne) the Great Wall of China. It is great. It started with an idea, it started with a thought, it started with one brick, and one pair of hands, followed by many thousands of others. There was one person though that laid the first stone/brick.

And then as the chinese proverb says 'Many hand make right wolk.'

That's what an idea is. It's not something forced, and more importantly it comes from the want to fulfill and need (rather than the need to fulfill a want).

That is how great ideas come to be. From one thought, that is built on over time, and developed by other people to the point of it becoming great. More than likely your 'Great Idea' will far succeed your own meandering existence.

Adbusters 78 Quotes

I’ve had a couple of quotes thought out for a few months now from the number 78 issue of Adbusters.



It’s when you believe in something, when you stand for something, when you put forth not a symbol, but a piece of yourself – that’s when the sparks begin to fly. Rodchenko, Heartfield, Klaman – they were more than designers. They were the life, the blood and the voice of their struggles – completely immersed in the burning issue of their day. They didn’t depict culture, they were culture. To push the boundaries of global culture in a fresh way, you have to do more than just design, you have to live.



...things have really gotten out of hand... I push tidbits of information around computer screens until what I’m working on accumulates a kind of slickness..



Children who survive through adolescence surrounded by gray walls and little time in the wilderness may not necessarily spend the rest of their lives believing that nature is a scary place, but the evidence suggests that their deficit of experience will result in an adulthood of generally higher stress and poorer health. Preserving and encouraging a natural environment is basic wisdom for the twenty-first century. An attractive future for humanity will be one in which all kids have the opportunity to roam, without fear, in an unspoiled land.

With a Rock in my hand.

It's so good to be back on the non-fiction. As much as I loved my break filled with vampire romance I am truely suited to reading non-fiction books, or fiction books that are non-fiction laced with a ficticious surrounding (like 1984, the catcher in the rye, on the road, Chuck Palanhuick's life works).


(can I just say, and this is off-topic, VLC plays ANYTHING, best media player ever for that.)

There were a couple of articles I read today in the most recent issue of Adbusters that really grabbed my attention.

Two of them are actually on the adbusters website and they can be found here:



This one is about hipsters.

I think Eilidh and I used to call them scene-sters back in the day, and now they have grown into hipsters.

I was quite alarmed when I read it because a lot of the things that they list off as 'ways to identify a hipster' are things that I have done in the past, or that I am currently doing. On futher inspection and with continued reading I realised that I am not a hipster, because I couldn't care less. The things that I buy and especially the clothes I wear are more-so because I don't give a rat's tail most of the time. Yes, there is a certain look I want, it's a Vikki Miller Queen of the World look, however, I just do, I don't really think about it any more. I used to go out of my way to try and stand out, but now I don't really care.

The other thing in that article spoke about trends of music and film and how things are popular among the hipsters until too many people like it. Now, this is something I am guilty of. I think I have a low tolerance level, or at least I used to, because I am certainly better and just getting on my with life and not worrying about what other people are doing or how they are perceiving me (not that I don't care completely, just that I am better than I was). I have been known to stop liking things when they get overly popular, this is moreso because I hate manipulation, market anything in the right way and it will sell, this has been proven on many occasions. For things to get overtly popular without the correct slow and painful method, means there has been some kind of subliminal marketing which tells people to buy something because it will verify their identity. Sounds harsh? Well it's the truth.

That's why I stop liking things, because I do not want to be associated with the fad, the movement, the genre that is being promoted and the meaning that gives to my identity. I want my own identity, not one manufactured by someone else. This is why popular songs from the 90s/80s and even a couple of months ago, I will now listen to again. Because the blood-sucking marketers have moved on to use something else to exploit the generation with.

I dislike, however, that art is getting mixed up with the hipster genre. Not all art school atendees are hipsters. There are plenty of genuine artists, and to use old film cameras or polaroid is not just to be cool, it's an attempt to bring reality back to a digital world. None of this is the hipsters fault and I hate the way the article segregates them and makes them sound like imposters or heathen's. They are recycling clothing like the environmentalists tell them to do, they are being creative in dress and with art. Granted, I hate that they are my competition, but that's just because they are better than me (at art, and angsty teen blogs - I no longer than the teen, just the angst).

Moving on though.

This article is about tupperware

After reading it I really want to go to a tuperware party, call me a molly mormon but I do. I want to go and bend plastic and oooo and aaaah over how strong and airtight plastic can be. I, however, do not want to go to a taser party. Well, not unless it was a self defence party, where we were actually taught something useful other than how to carry a weapon and still look good. I bet half of the women, if not all, that own those leopard print tasers (leopard print is pretty cool) won't even be able to get them out of their bags. They will be mugged regardless because no one told them they will be shocked, they will be scared but they have to be in the mindset and use their addrenaline rush to take action (if it's safe). I'm sure some of those women might end up injured because they resort to using their laser taser faser mcgaser instead of their own common sense.

It's a shame common sense isn't sold with leopard print patterns, the world might make a little more sense if it was.

Here comes the hard slaught for me. (how good a word is slaught?) The next two articles I am going to type-a type-a type-a (like lil vicky's school of dance, but not, because I have two k's I am borderline racist).

This is from an unknown page of Adbusters number 79.

the page number is unknown because they don't have page numbers.

9/11
When foreign fighters flew into the World Trade Centre, America's confidence was shaken to the core. But instead of reinventing itself once again, America has come undone.

Today, the US is bogged down in a war that is both unpopular and unwinnable. It's economy is on the verge of collapse. Washington is paralyzed with calcified politics and unable to create sustainable energy policy, break its addiction to debt or stop antagonizing foreign foes.

But for the first time, America cannot point the finger at an identifiable enemy. For the first time, America must come to terms with the fact that this is a self-inflicted crisis. The question now is whether America can survive this latest challenge and remain one of the world's most dominant powers, or whether its confidence has finally been broken for good.



There is no author for that. My comments on this are that what I've been saying for the past few weeks is correct. Granted, I say it as a proud joke, but I do believe that the United States are going to need help, and I suspect that the empire - that is the Great British Empire - will start to reform. The United Kingdom will need help as well, but we have picked ourselves up again and again, as a nation. Granted, i've not been alive for the past times and the quality of the majority of this nations citizens has somewhat deteriorated in the past few decades. So it will be interesting to see if we can stay afloat. I think our cynicism and our dour faced nature, our grip on reality, mixed with our inability to actually complain properly will see us through.

Okay, here's the next article:

begging for more by Kono Matsu

Two years ago, in his annual state of the union address, President Bush chastised America for its raginig addiction to foreign oil. In the stern language of disapproving patriarch, Bush let it be known that he intended to address the growing problem before his tenure was up.

Now, with only a few scant months of his presidency remaining, Bush has finally unveiled his energy plan. After begging and barely getting the Saudis to pump more oil, he is attempting to strong-arm Congress into lifting the ban on offshore drilling. Bush's plan, which would cause untold environmental damage, will only yeild enough oil to support our current level of consumption for two-and-a-half years. And were the drilling to start tomorrow, it wouldn't become available in the market for at least a decade.

Some plan.

So why didn't Bush start by suggesting that Americans drive less, drive slower, or stop driving altogether? Why didn't he urge funding for alternative fuel research or push for a carbon tax?

The reason is because, in addition to being the most inept leader this country has ever known, Bush is an oil man.

We never had a chance.

Seven years of Bush policy has left America crushed by debt, stuck in Iraq and isolated from the rest of the world. Bush will undoubtedly be remembered by history as the straw that broke the empire's back.

And yet, despite it all, the man himself seems to be faring well. Displaying the unflinching gusto for which he's famous, Bush's inner fortitude is nothing short of a phenomenon.

Despite his litany of flaws, I admire Bush for his unwavering sense of self-confidence. I am in awe of whatever force - be it will or ignorance - that shields him from the onslaught of public opinion. Still, sometimes before the sun sets on his presiidency, I'd like to see someone confront him for his crimes. I'd like to seee a reporter, a citizen or a disillusioned war veteran hold him accountable for the destruction his administration has wrought. I'd like someone to make him answer for the million people who have died on his watch or the eco-crisis he has left woefully unaddressed. But most of all, in front of the blazing lights of media cameras, I'd like to see someone wipe that smirk off his goddam face.



When I was in Utah in November there wasn't a lot of politics or debate. Since then the sub-prime mortgage nonsense, the 'credit crunch', the price of petrol, the fear of running out of oil has actually occured. It's been a busy year. So while I was in the republican Bush loving state of Utah in May I heard all about the oil in Alaska, and how people didn't care about the environment or the life of animals if it meant the sustainability of the American race. I kid you not.

There were many comments I heard, from all ages and wakes of life that suggested the solution was digging for oil in the United States.

Now, Oil in the states has been known about for a long time, but the US decided a long time ago to not use their own oil, they decided to buy North Sea Oil from Maggie the spazz Thatcher when she sold us down the river in the 70s, and they decided to buy up and use the Eastern oil in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc etc. Well, what the bloody hell have they done with it?

That was a lot of oil, where did it go?

It would be nice if we all had an unlimited supply and we could keep driving around until the cows come home, and live the life we think we all want. But the truth is, we just can't do it. We just can't keep living that way. We were given a pure blessing that we just stuck to. Rather than continuing technology and improving on our laurels we stayed there. We just sat back and enjoyed the wind blowing through our hair. We became lazy.

This had not happened before, think about how quickly other generations and other centuries have improved upon inventions and technology. We are no longer moving as rapidly as we once did because we no longer invent things for the sake of improving our life style, but we invent things to make money, to exploit people and to just shift all the numbers from one bank account to the other. Our forefathers discovered oil, invented cars, we've improved upon them but we just invent numbers. What do we have to show for decades of thinking? Hyperindividualism. Inventing things for the benefit of individual gain rather than the improvement of the lives of the members of our society.

When it comes to design this is the biggest question of them all. I think however, rather than the question being, how do we invent a new fuel or a new material to easily keep our current way of life? Perhaps the question should be, 'How do we change our way of life to be in accordance with the things nature has provided us with?'

We are not smarter than nature. That is man's biggest fall down and largest mistake. Thinking that we are smarter than nature and that we can live and survive without it.

We, technically, all should have that giant 'the spazz' name in between our first and surname's.

What a mess. Rather than digging oil, we should be digging our way out of this mess, out of this dependency for oil, out of this black hole we have drilled our way into.

Hillary (Hilldog) Clinton

I hate American Politics. Fact. It's not really democracy, and the winner is the person with the most money for advertising. It makes me sick.

This is what life boils down to: a popularity contest. Based on manipulating people using propaganda about yourself; using clothes, flyers, slogans, cars etc.

Anyway.

I read today that Hilldog Clinton has threatened to pulverise Iran if they launch a nuclear attack on Israel.

The terminology she used to describe such an event and act is disgusting, disgraceful and clearly only used to get the republican vote.

What makes me even more mad/sick is the fact that we have to hear about it; that the United States has interfered so much in everyone else's business, to the extent, that we all dread who will be elected, that we are all put in a position that we care. This should not be the case.

However; I read somewhere, I'm not entirely sure where, about the simple fact that no one can stay on top forever. The article was predicting the rise of India, China and the rest of the Asian world. I think they are the next contenders for the top.

Britain was once Great (now it's just Britain regardless of its outdated GB title), the USA believes itself to be currently great and forced itself on everyone else. But soon China will rise up and take the lead (if America don't pulverise them because of their lack of democracy). It's just like McDonalds and Coca-Cola. They are no longer on top. They won't be around forever. Greatness comes before a fall. I suppose the Buddhists call that Karma.

So, has anyone started brushing up on their Chinese language skills? All 7,000 dialects?



Image from flickr by user: jgmphotography

Need: The Consumer Religion and the Hierarchy of Needs.

Our identities are based on several components, some of those are fixed and some of those are changeable. The fixed ones are things like nationality, age, and gender. The changeable ones include birth given aspects that can be changed, like hair colour, upbringing, language, and, for some of us, religion.

Most of the generations living just now will remember when our lives were based upon, predominantly, Christian principles of loving fellow man, love for ourselves, humility and integrity. Most religions preach the same fundamental values so, essentially all religion is the same in the context that it is nourishment for the ‘soul.’

Our lives are based upon the fulfilment of five levels of needs. These start with the fundamental physiological needs like eating and drinking, then as the hierarchy moves up it passes the need for security, love, self-esteem, and finally self-actualisation is the highest level. Religion used to provide for those needs, it used to encourage us to love and be loved, to feel safe in the knowledge of our faith, to have self-esteem in ourselves and finally to help us feel one hundred percent gratified with our lives, and our success, because we had a belief and a knowledge that there was more to life than the objects that surround us. Our needs were fulfilled through our faith in religion and our belief and awareness of an inner soul. Attendance at church is evidence enough to claim that we were aware of the need to nourish our inner, psychological selves.

It all started to change though, as consumerism became the forefront of living, and the material possessions in the world started to provide a social gratification, there was no longer a need to believe in something that was intangible. Why would you need to when you could believe in Nike, Coca-Cola or Sony: the lust and desire for objects overshadowed the religious precepts that our nation was, not too long ago, built upon.

This has lead to a paradigm shift in the hierarchy of needs. Based upon my own research and theories I have come to the conclusion that the needs of the individual are no longer represented by a triangle, but more-so a circle, or sphere.

Based upon the original hierarchy determined by Maslow, my own theory starts similarly with the Physiological needs in the centre. It is a small circle that is the pinnacle and inner most important need. It ensures our basic survival and it always requires us to consume in order to fulfil it.

The middle circle is our need to love and be loved, our need for belonging, stability and security. This ring encases the physiological needs because we are now more focused on achieving more than just survival. Basic survival is taken for granted and our concentrations now lie on making consumer choices that will ensure we feel safe, and we are loved. This includes making fashion decisions in order to be accepted by friends, and selecting brands that will ensure stability – those that are known and expected to provide high quality, thus, making the consumer decision process easier.The last ring and circle is self-actualisation and self-esteem. It is our top priority and we use consumerism to make us feel good about ourselves, to help us feel like we belong, or that we are more successful than others.

This is our new religion, this is what we have replaced spirituality with: objects. Christmas time is one of the prime examples. What used to be a pagan holiday, adopted by the Christians to honour the birth of their saviour has now been passed on to the corporate companies to exploit and make profit.

My Mum recounted a story to me recently about the introduction of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. It would have been somewhere in the mid 80s. Presents, gifts and toys were always a treat, and the smallest present would suffice. I remember Christmas in my young childhood, I would be overwhelmed with excitement at the prospects of receiving presents, and new toys. I’m sure I had already formed my Sindy doll and My Little Pony obsession, so any new additions to the fold were always welcome.

This particular year there was a huge push and market for Cabbage Patch Dolls. Everyone wanted one, and everyone had to have one for Christmas. It was this point that, my Mum has decided, was the turning point for consumerism - she stakes the blame solely on the Cabbage Patch. Naturally, like every other child in school, and everyone on the street who had a TV, I wanted a Cabbage Patch doll. They were in short supply and high demand, and they also cost £20. Which, in the mid 80s, was a lot of money. Usually the average Christmas gift would total in around £10, to double that price was a huge risk taken by manufacturers and the marketers. It worked though, and since then the prices have risen and the quality has dropped,
but as long as the product is in short supply and high demand, it is the must have toy for the Christmas season. If you receive one, you are the luckiest, most popular and coolest person in school, on the street and in life.

I never received a cabbage patch kids doll until a while after their release, and it was only a 4-inch plastic figure. But it made me happy. It had the brand, it had the woollen hair, and it almost looked like me. I had made a connection with an object that I had longed for, and when I achieved it, it fulfilled my need of love, and self-gratification, because socially, I had the object it would take to be successful.

That is the consumer religion, obtaining the inner happiness and joy with a product. Unfortunately we will grow out of that product socially, which means we will loose the inner happiness it had provided. This will lead to a constant feeling of instability and a need to keep looking for the item that will never let us down, that will always portray our changing inner identity and that will always satisfy our wants which, appear, to us, to be needs.

Financial Value: Branded Gratification.

Every object has two ways of measuring its value. One is financially the other is emotionally, the latter will be discussed as part of the double-bill finale, the former will be discussed now.

If I was to show up to a business meeting driving a BMW, wearing a Prada skirt and jacket, Monolo Blanihk shoes, and brandishing a leather bag with the word Dior engraved subtly on the metal catch, I would be emitting sings of financial success and therefore, professionalism, ability and confidence. Whether this was my intention or not, it will happen. This is because there are certain brands that everyone knows, and understands the financial cost of, whether it’s cheap or expensive.

I drive a Ford Ka, it’s small, impractical for large loads of people or luggage, but it does the job, it’s served me well during the four years that I’ve owned it. But I am aware that I will have to upgrade one day, as I earn more money and I can afford more, the social implications of the consumer world will encourage me to change my car, to upgrade it to one that reflects how I feel I have progressed in life. This is a form of self-gratification.

According to the social implications of branding I have not ‘made it’ in life until I own a car, or a house, or any other branded object that holds such successful symbolism. The brands that cost the most, that have the best advertising and that apparently produce the best quality objects are the ones that reward the consumer by physically emanating success.

Without a healthy advertising campaign and brand presence the object’s social value will be worth nothing. It is through preconceptions of a brand and the stereotypical opinions of those owning it and not owning it that its financial value exists.

However, unless there are cars like mine on the road, with dents, and rust, then the new BMW or Porsche would be worth nothing. Our gratification and personal financial success might be emanated to the external environment by our brand purchasing decisions, but the true value only exists when it is compared to another object, when we know we are better off than our neighbours and our friends because of the kind of car we drive, the brand of jeans we wear, the supermarket we use.

This results in psychological damage, when we end up over-worked, seeing our friends and families less and less, and becoming too stressed about the things in life that are less-important. Success is measured from the inside, but it is so easy to be caught up in the social hype that demands us to buy out of our means in order to feel like we are achieving, and to feel like we are meeting the goals, demands and expectations of our neighbours, peers, and colleagues.

It’s hard to break such expectations; it takes a lot of inner self-confidence and the knowledge to exist in the consumer world by standing out and going against the grain; by questioning the social expectations and blatantly challenging them.

The Big Bad Wolf: A Once Upon A Time Introduction.

The defamation of the character of the Wolf has occurred in every single fairy-tale that he has featured in. The Wolf is the fairy-tale symbol of everything that is dangerous and everything we should avoid. Fairy-tales and story telling are a large part of our childhood and create a foundation for the teaching of morals and ideas.

There is one story in particular in which the wolf dresses as a sheep in order to trick the shepherd, his motives are clear: he is hungry and he wants to eat the sheep – he will do whatever is necessary in order to sustain himself.

This one story and principle can be compared to contemporary consumer trends. Consumerism is essential in this society because we no longer self-produce the things necessary for our survival. So we consume to live. But there is a large consumer market filled with hundreds of products – some of them essential, some of them no so much – every product has a manufacturer and a brand and they all want to survive in the marketplace. To help the individual decide what products to consume advertising, packaging and branding were created to communicate the products contents, manufacturer and to convey its quality.

Over the years as more and more brands started to appear, it became essential for products to compete for their share of the market place. This led to surreptitious methods of communication that uses psychology to exploit the needs of the individual in order to achieve a higher status and standing in the market place.

This involved lowering prices, changing packaging, introducing new sub-brands or products under the same brand and advertising campaigns that promised happiness and fulfilment through purchasing objects – in other words, the brands and the products, did everything they could to stay afloat in a competitive market. Just like the wolf they dressed themselves in ‘clothing’ that allowed the consumer to feel comfortable enough to trust and believe in the brand. But where is the danger in that?

The danger is that these brands and products are not fulfilling their promises; they are not making us happy, they are not helping us to find romance, or to succeed in our job, or to have the perfect family, because, these things cannot be achieved by buying.

Consumerism has become a ‘vicious cycle.’ It involves ‘the chronic overwork to be able to spend more; the social disintegration resulting from overwork; the environmental damage caused by consumer waste; conflict over resources to supply consumer demand. In other words, a myriad of problems loosely bound by the innocent desire for an iPod or a luxury car collection’ (Uechi, 2007, p.51).

It is necessary to consume, but over-consumption is damaging our mental and natural environment and clouding our perspective and priorities in life. I don’t want to preach, and I don’t want to tell anyone how to live their life, I just want to bring these issues to the forefront. With the rise in fear of global warming, a focus has been made on the amount we consume and the exploited countries and people that are affected by our over-consumption habits.

So, I am crying wolf, in the hope that someone will listen and realise that just because the wolf is in a disguise, of either sheep’s clothing or Granny’s clothing, doesn’t mean he is not there.