The life expectancy of electronic devices is getting shorter every year. According to the CE Product Life Cycle study, consumers expect smartphones to last approximately four to five years. New products are released at a pace never seen before and consumer perceptions of product life cycles are changing. In order to encourage customers to buy the new model, companies slowly stop supporting older operating systems. As soon as a device reaches the end of its useful life, customers simply replace it. This leads to the issue of what happens to products once they are replaced. E-waste has become a serious problem for the environment and the emergence of ethical electronic devices could be the solution to this issue.

Ethical electronic devices are designed and manufactured to have a long-term use. These products are not designed to be obsolete in a few years and to be replaced by a new generation of products. The companies promoting this “new movement” are thinking about the future of the industry by developing sustainable electronics. Yesterday, Apple announced a new recycling program, which aims to reduce the company’s e-waste. Since 2007, when the iPhone was first launched, most of the company’s smartphones have ended up in landfills as e-waste, contributing to air and water pollution. Apple Renew is an initiative towards better recycling processes and encouraging customers to recycle their devices. Apple will collect them for free and deconstruct them, so that many parts can be reused in other phones.

Even though it is great news that a huge company like Apple announced such changes, other companies have been doing things better for a long time and the Dutch startup Fairphone is one of them. I really think that big companies like Apple can learn a lot from this startup. Fairphone offers a smartphone developed with ethically sourced materials, better for the environment and respectful with the people in the supply chain. Its smartphone is easy to repair and customers can do it themselves. In order to stop creating so much e-waste, first we have to change the way smartphones are manufactured and repaired. The idea of a product should be to keep it for as long as possible. Fairphone designs its products to last and to be ethical: “Building a phone to create a fairer economy”.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/21/apple-tim-cook-renew-recyling-electronic-waste-landfill-environment-tech

https://www.fairphone.com/about/

http://www.cta.tech/Blog/Articles/2014/September/The-Life-Expectancy-of-Electronics

Kraft Heinz made a surprising move. The American company decided to take the artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes out of its flagship product Kraft Mac & Cheese. In April 2015 the American worldwide food company announced the complete removal of such ingredients by 2016. The new Kraft Mac & Cheese was officially launched on March, but the “all-natural” product had already been in the market since December 2015. Kraft did not tell about the new changes in its recipe and nobody noticed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-kul627Y3g

Over 365.000 people signed a petition asking Kraft to “remove all dangerous artificial food dyes from their line of Mac & Cheese.” Kraft responded accordingly and changed some ingredients of its flagship product. But despite all the changes, the “new” Mac & Cheese had the same signature color and the company still sold over 50 million of them. All these sales were made before the company made a formal announcement about the new recipe. That is why Kraft is calling its campaign “the world’s largest blind taste test”. “We wanted fans to experience the new recipe for themselves without being prompted.”

In my opinion, Kraft’s marketing campaign has been really smart since the beginning. The company promised to remove all dangerous artificial food dyes from their line of Mac & Cheese and they kept their promise. Moreover, Kraft was smart enough not to tell customers about the changes the new recipe had and customers could not tell the difference: “It’s changed. But it hasn’t.” Kraft was able to keep its promise and maintain the same taste and color of its iconic product at the same time. The company’s success may lead other companies to follow the same path and avoid such harmful and unnecessary food ingredients in the future. The food industry has now the chance to make its products healthier. If one of the largest food companies in the world can change its product, making it healthier without compromising on taste, then other food companies can do the same. Artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes could become something of the past.

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/brand_innovation/hannah_furlong/americans_didntnotice_when_kraft_mac_cheese_went_all-

http://www.brandchannel.com/2016/03/07/kraft-macaroni-cheese-030716/

https://www.change.org/p/kraft-stop-using-dangerous-food-dyes-in-our-mac-cheese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPETP7-UfuI

The next generation of the fashion doll Barbie is coming in 2016. The American multinational toy company Mattel announced a dramatic makeover in their flagship product. Barbie will now be available in four different body types –petite, tall, curvy and original-, in seven different skin tones and in several eye colors and hair styles. Moreover, the new Barbies will have solid thighs instead of the thigh gap the original Barbie had. The company started revitalizing the brand in 2015 with the “you can be anything” campaign. The launching of a new, more realistic generation of Barbie dolls can be a new step towards this goal.

Changing their classic blonde, blue-eyed with model proportions doll to a more realistic doll is a bold move from the toy company. The new generation of Barbies is partly addressed to the so called “Millennial Moms”. “We were seeing that Millennials are driven by social justice and attracted to brands with purpose and values, and they didn’t see Barbie in this category” said Tania Missad, Mattel’s director of global brand insights. According to Missad, “compared to Baby Boomers and Gen X parents, Millennials are more likely to question institutions and harbor anti-consumerist sentiments.”

The brand has received many criticism in the last years because of its controversial influence and impact in young girls. The popular doll has body proportions often described as unrealistic, unreachable and unhealthy. Barbies can be seen as an inappropriate cultural icon of female beauty for young girls. Many “millennial moms” were not sure about purchasing Barbie dolls for their kids and that could have forced the toy company to change and revitalize their flagship product. Barbie’s demand and sales have been in decrease in the last quarters.

Even though it is a big update for Barbie, the brand has been criticized because of its lack of categories. Every woman is unique and categorize them in four body types cannot reflect that. In my opinion, it was about time that Barbie included different body shapes, heights and skin tones for its dolls. This is the biggest change in the brand since the first doll was launched in 1959. The brand needed an urgent renewal and some updates. Women’s body image, and the world in general, have changed a lot in the past 60 years, but Barbie had not. I hope more changes and updates will follow in the future.

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/brand_innovation/hannah_furlong/barbie_breaks_out_blonde_blue-eyed_box_range_new_shap

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/12122027/Introducing-the-new-realistic-Barbie-The-thigh-gap-has-officially-gone.html