Posts Tagged ‘open hearts necklaces’
how to pitch prosperity »
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
The economy sucks taint. Stores have slashed into their prices (and profit margins) because people aren’t able or willing to buy. But what does that mean?
You’re making as much as (or less than) your parents did when they thought bell bottoms were rad. An entire subclass of humans has been created to make clothes and Blackberries for pennies a day. Congress scolds big box retailers for their labor injustices instead of instituting laws that would change things.
Our economic model ignores resource depletion, waste production (read: real cost) and barriers of entry (information, competition, etc.). States are running wicked deficits, slicing programs and funding (education, police, etc.). Wall Street is handed $700 billion* without explanation.
I don’t mean to spark guilt or confusion; both are worthless. But, was the economy that great to begin with? We were rich but that was generally based on our ability to shift responsibility and accountability out of sight (read: overseas). Have we run out of scapegoats?
Thursday’s “Earl,” while slightly humorous, turned out to be a half-hour ad for Jane Seymour’s Open Heart necklaces. We’re fast approaching the most consumerist of mutated holidays and all media is saturated with desperate pleas to buy things we can’t afford.
Will marketing and the economy adapt? Will we still rely on the poor to buy beyond their means so our 401Ks don’t tank? How would a marketing pitch go for something that creates genuine prosperity? What’s the guerrilla campaign for renewable electricity (not based on valuable crop misuse)?
* Minus the $17 billion just given to the auto industry because Chapter 11 would have provided just as many layoffs but would have dropped share costs for stockholders.