The Three Little Pigs: A Once Upon A Time Conclusion.

The enemy of the three little pigs was the wolf. He tried to persuade and manipulate those pigs
in to granting him entrance inside their houses. The story of the pigs starts with them all leaving home and starting their own lives, they are each very different because they choose different materials to construct their houses. Three different materials, of three different qualities and strengths. This could either mean that the pigs differed in intelligence, or in financial means.

The Wolf preys on the weakest first, cajoles him and then when the pig does not relent he blows his house down.

To apply that to the consumer world, the first little piggy would be those who want more, and who are seriously caught up in using objects to obtain happiness. The wolf is consumerism and he preys on those of us who want more, who cannot afford more, but that believe objects will provide the gratification required to be a part of the social circles we desire to be in.

The consumer world eats us all up, and we end up caught up in something that there is not an easy escape from.

But there are some of us that put up resistance, piggy two and three. Pig two put up a fight but was swallowed in consumerism in the end.

It was only when the wolf came across pig three and his solid fortress that he admitted defeat. Although, he was still trying, until the very end to infiltrate the house of pig three. He tried every possibly entry, including the chimney. Consumerism does the same, it will stop at nothing to try and tell us about a product; to try and persuade us to buy and spend; to encourage
us to own things we cannot afford; to ensure that we become brand loyal; to force feed us information about the social implications of a product; to cajole us in to believing that happiness comes in the form of a car, a washing detergent or a breakfast cereal.

We can no longer sit idly by, in our houses of straw and twigs and let advertising tell us about apparent social standards in an attempt to manipulate us in to buying things we do not need. Consumerism does not provide everything it promises to. It is necessary for our survival and to fulfil our social needs, but we need to focus on our inner identity to fulfil the needs of love, gratification and self-actualisation. We are all amazing, and we all have the inner superhero power necessary to not let the wolf blow our houses down.

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.