AllConsuming.org.uk

How do you know when outrage against bankers is really real? When you read about it in normally right wing papers like the Daily Mail or the Sun?  No.  You know when something has gone from the margins to the mainstream when it is embraced by popular commercial culture. And last night I saw a fantastic example of this.

The market, lets remember, has no morality – it will sell anything it can.  Profit maximisation is all that is hard wired and pre-programmed into it. In this single minded cause it will c-opt and appropriate the icons of the left like Che Guevara, Lenin or Gorbachev to flog t-shirts, vodka or Burberry.  It likes us to feel we are being a bit daring – still radical but oh so chic.

Sometimes, and its not often, it will attack its own side.  Strongbow do just this in one of their latest adverts. It starts with a pre battle scene on a windswept hilltop like Gladiators or Braveheart but the ‘army’ are modern tradesman and businessmen. The ‘general’ walks between them reminding them why they are here – to raise their flagging spirits before the battle ahead. The roofers are there to give shelter to our families; the gas fitters to bring us warmth.  He turns to the bankers – and says “you are because  ….” He can’t think of a reason. Someone in the dense ranks shouts ‘sod off’.  There are more shouts to “sod off” and the general ways the bankers away.  The bankers are turfed out of the lines of  real workers to loud boos and one last responding cry of “sod off”.  The pay off line is “Bowtime – hard earned”.  You can watch it here.

The calculation in the ad agency and the company will have been that few bankers drink Strongbow so they can afford to be offended. But the advert, they hope, would appeal to just about everyone else who works hard and deserves their reward – unlike the fat cat bonus bandits of the City. The creators of the advert will have done their homework before releasing it; they will have  researched attitudes to the rich and bankers, they will have focused grouped  the ideas and tested different versions of the advert.  The advert appears only because they know people are outraged and are tapping into this anger to sell a few more pints of their sweet apple and alcohol drink. And of course they do it for one reason; to earn more money.  The executives at Strongbow and their agency will be amongst the top earners in the country.  Perhaps not as rich as the bankers but in the top 5% certainly.  Do they work any harder – do they add more to society than the bankers? Do they deserve their Bowtime?  It’s debatable.

Writing all this has made me thirsty and for some strange reason I fancy a pint of Strongbow.

The latest Microsoft adverts for Windows 7 are really annoying me.  They are trying to make out that I, we you helped invent it by making suggesting and that it makes us all more powerful – rather than just more reliant on their monolithic technology.  Here is a flavour of a  poster I saw on the the tube:

“I asked for fewer clicks. Now it takes fewer clicks
I’ve never been more influential”

Aaaaargh.  No you have never been more duped into splashing out on an upgrade for feature you don’t understand and will never use. And why am I pretending you even exist.  You don’t.  You are just an imaginary person made up by the MS advertising company.  This is all part of the new technique to make us think we co-produced the product and will therefore have more affinity to it. Very clever.

And another thing. I object to adverts on the tube.  Why should I have to look at commercial posters if I don’t want to.  Our cities and public transport should be free of this rubbish. More on this from Compass soon!

I should have put this up ages ago.  Its an exchange between Guardian journalist John Harris and Times journalist David Aaronovitch. Its a debate about the future of the left in which David calls me eccentric and then brilliantly says that I’m the ‘Mary Whitehouse of shopping’.  I should be so lucky David.  The debate starts here but dies because you need to subscribe to the magazine – which is fair enough. Mary, if you are old enough to remember, was a thorn in the side of what she perceived to be permissive broadcasting. I’m not sure what effect she had – but everyone knew who she was.  I’m not really sure I want that – but I’d settle for being a thorn in the side of turbo-consumerism.

This came in from David.  Its an offer you can refuse from a shopping website called Not On the Hight Street. I would say its priceless but it isn’t.  There maybe many wars going on, the environment, Afghanistan etc, but as long as we keep shopping for stuff like this it will all be okay.

Do send me pictures or links to anything you find.  You can get me at:  info@allconsuming.org.uk.  Thanks

I saw this on the side of a choclate vending machine. Its M&Ms.  It makes you wonder what they have in store, literally, for the uneducated consumer?

Isango! is a travel and experience company managed to get an email into my spam box.  It caught my eye amongst all the other virtual flotsam and jetsam because it was headed Ship till you drop. This is what it said:

“Treat yourself to a shopping expedition in Italy in this tour. Browse through the outlets of high fashion stores of Gucci and Prada and pick up some designer clothes at reduced prices. Discover the high world of fashion in Italy. Whether you want to update your wardrobe or reinvent your look, the tour ensures you get the best of what you are looking for.”

The home of the Renaissance and modern civilisation is now marketed as a shopping destination site.

Here is the in ternary:You are picked up from Piazza Stazione at the corner with Piazza dell’Unita.

Depart from Florence to reach the Prada outlet. After spending about an hour and half, proceed to the famous center The Mall. For the next two hours and forty five minutes, browse through the stores of the prestigious high fashion companies including: Gucci – Giorgio Armani – Fendi – Ferragamo – Y.S. Laurent – Valentino – Ungaro – Zegna – Bottega Veneta – Sergio Rossi – Loro Piana.

You can enjoy a snack at the pleasant Café in the Center.

At the end of the tour, you will be returned to Piazza Stazione at the corner with Piazza dell’Unita

But hey what’s so wrong with a bit of shopping.

I took this picture while ‘dumping’ some old electrical goods from my partner house. This sight of all this discarded ‘waste’ brings home to us just how much we throw away. Stuff is too cheap to fix and quickly becomes obsolete – through look or design. We must have the newest thing. The land fills get fuller, carbon emissions rise and we go on pretend we live a free and fulfilling life. I think it’s us that’s being wasted.