In one of my all time favorite movies, Fight Club, Tyler Durden(Brad Pitt) talks about the impact that marketing has had on us. He talks about how the success of marketing and the American Capitalist Society has been achieved by preying on people. Making us believe that certain luxuries are actually necessary. So great is the impact of marketing that we always end up buying stuff we don’t need. What Gen Y views as conveniences are luxuries that are marketed so successfully that we cannot imagine life without them. Brands are the order of the day. Rather than who you are, it is what you own that defines you.
For example, do we really need a cellphone? All we really need a phone for is making calls and there are ample payphones on every block. Even if we are somehow able to rationalize the need for a cellphone wouldn’t it be enough to have something functional rather than a smartphone?
How many of us really need a car? There’s always public transit, why a gas-guzzling Hummer over a Civic? Why a new car over a recycled(used one)? How many of us really need branded clothes? Or Branded coffee?
Or Branded anything? We all fall prey to marketing. And we need to re-think what we buy.
The movie really influenced my purchasing decisions. While making any purchases it is necessary to really evaluate, will I really need this? Am I going to use it? Is we get more environmentally conscious I feel it is important for us to think not only about the way the product was purchased but also what happens to it once we want to dispose it off