Buy Now! Are you on the right side of history?
Weekend watching: a reminder of why we're doing the work we're doing and a trip down memory lane to my former self.
Like some of those profiled in the Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy documentary released on Netflix this week, I started my career in the midst of the digital revolution. What a time that was. I remember seeing Eric Liedtke, former brand president at adidas, speak on so many occasions about everything he was doing to innovate, and always being just so impressed. His reflections in the film make it worth watching alone.
Back then, it was ALL about how to make people buy more and more products... What e-commerce moves, point of sale tricks, email messaging, social media strategies, live shopping events or fashion shows could we employ to help shift more goods? And it was most poignantly about how we could speed it up more and more and more and more to satisfy (and manufacture) consumer demand for newness. Everything was about enabling anything anyone could possibly want at the click of a button - giving way to a world of immediacy that we now come to expect as a basic right.
This wasn’t just about the brands either. Though they’re featured most in the documentary, as part of the media (which is what I was back then), we were equally complicit.
Wins towards the on-demand economy were huge marks of success for years within this incredible revolution we were all a part of, multiplying all of the issues we’re now facing. We created obsolescence as part of the package deal. Profit maximisation was put above all else first and foremost, with total disregard for the people who made the items, the impact they have on the planet, and indeed where they end up after we throw them out.
Back then, it’s not that we didn’t care, we just didn’t think about it. It was high energy, high adrenalin, more plus more plus more. As the documentary explains: Sell more, waste more, lie more, hide more, control more.Â
If you work in sustainability (or indeed in any of the industries this is about - fashion, consumer goods, electronics, plastics et al), there’s nothing in here you don’t know, but it’s still quite something seeing it laid out in such a way. Former execs from Amazon, Apple and Unilever join Eric from adidas to share the tricks brands use to keep their customers consuming — and the real impact they have on our lives and the world.
It’s a dark art for sure, but it’s also an art that we can redirect. This is exactly why in my role at the UN Envrionment Programme we put marketers front and centre as critical to the ability for sustainability to succeed with our work on The Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook, launched last year. When the marketing machine and all it supports is designed to fuel growth based on sheer volume production, we cannot and will not reach the goals before us or indeed meet the urgent needs of the crises before us today. So we aimed to present what an alternative version looks like, which is what we’re continuing to work on today.
I for one, am so very glad to have moved to the right side of history, in spite of a past contributing to this.
If you haven’t watched it yet, strap in this weekend. Trailer above, full episode on Netflix here. Do please share your thoughts below, especially if you’re similarly reflecting on working in such a manner.
ps. It's Black Friday next week.