http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/consumerism/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christmas-is-over-but-the-brats-need-more-bratz/ If you’re a parent, you may think the seasonal requirement to buy your children stocking-loads of plastic crap has finally come to an end. “Phew,” you may be saying (or perhaps flatulating if you consumed one too many prune-stuffed ham fists over Chrimbo). “At last it will be possible to enter a shopping centre without being pressured to purchase a googolplex of anatomically unsound dolls, micro vehicles and cyber pets.” penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christmas-is-over-but-the-brats-need-more-bratz/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christmas-is-over-but-the-brats-need-more-bratz/#item7441 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Our-incredibly-annoying-but-heartfelt-christmas-traditions/ The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Our-incredibly-annoying-but-heartfelt-christmas-traditions/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Our-incredibly-annoying-but-heartfelt-christmas-traditions/#item7335 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-united-colours-of-pseudo-morality/ For years now The United Colours of Benetton has been running shock advertising campaigns. Many of us remember the confronting images of AIDS victims that formed part of their early ‘90s campaigns. And some may remember their 2003 food-for-life campaign, depicting the different effects of famine on people from various African nations. According their former head of advertising, Oliviero Toscani, the ads are intended to “promote peace, tolerance, multiculturalism and to challenge stereotypes”. However, their latest advertising campaign - which irresponsibly insults Muslim moral sensibilities - has revealed Benetton’s real motives. Benetton has just been exploiting the latte set’s vague commitment to world peace, using it to sell their products. They don’t care about peace and tolerance. Indeed, they don’t care whether they provoke violent reactions from extremist groups. The bottom line of these buggers is selling jeans and knickers. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-united-colours-of-pseudo-morality/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-united-colours-of-pseudo-morality/#item7192 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-a-working-class-sham/ When done properly, a celebrity endorsement can literally make a company. The most famous example is when then third string sportswear company Nike (behind Adidas and Converse) signed first year NBA player Michael Jordan in 1984. Jordan had just been picked third in the NBA draft after centers Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie, but Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight really liked the free-scoring Jordan and courted him personally. When Jordan signed, Nike’s stock price was below 60 cents. When he finished his first three-peat in 1993, Nike’s stock price was $8.80 and now the biggest sportswear company in the world. When Jordan announced that he was retiring from basketball a few months later, Nike stock sunk to $5.20 and when he sent out his famous two-word “I’m back” press release, Nike stock surged again. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-a-working-class-sham/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-a-working-class-sham/#item6793 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Consumption-need-not-be-a-deadly-disease/ Consumer spending is good, right? We are told in the media all the time to spend more, and we worry when “consumer confidence” is down. Why is that? In short, the answer is because we have a GDP to look after. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is one of our key financial indicators, and in developed western societies consumer spending makes up approximately 65 per cent of GDP. If consumer spending is a large determinant of GDP, then the more we spend the higher our GDP and the better the economy. So if we are being told to spend just so we have an increasingly higher GDP, then someone, somewhere must have worked out that this must be good for its citizens right? penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Consumption-need-not-be-a-deadly-disease/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Consumption-need-not-be-a-deadly-disease/#item6749 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-consumer-envy-wot-dunnit-innit/ The Left blame welfare cuts and the moral failure of society’s leaders. The Right blame the bludger mentality and soft policing. As usual, the truth is more like c) neither of the above. Some have portrayed the riots through the social frame of family decline and fatherlessness, while others viewed it through the racial lens, before hastily backtracking when they saw white faces beneath the hoods. While many of these viewpoints point to a general sense of unease and frustration among a section of Britain’s youth, none of them explain why half of England ended up looking like a Boxing Day sale where someone forgot to open the store doors, with shoppers forced to smash their way in. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-consumer-envy-wot-dunnit-innit/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-consumer-envy-wot-dunnit-innit/#item6499 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Zaras-fast-fashion-is-as-unhealthy-as-fast-food/ Zara is here, as this video of somewhat hysterical shoppers in Sydney today shows. Whether you’re hysterical, trepidatious or completely ignorant, there is little doubt the arrival of Spanish clothing Zara is about to alter the fabric of our style landscape. Here’s the low-down: Catering to men, women and children, Zara produces, on average, 11,000 distinct items of clothing distributed in 70 countries each year. As the flagship brand of the Inditex group, Zara and its sibling brands boast 5,004 stores with a global turnover of $12.5 billion. Heck, even that sartorial hotspot Kazakhstan now boasts its own Zara outlet. But, what really marks Zara as an oddity, a stunningly successful oddity, in the clothing world is the way the brand has dramatically shortened the fashion life cycle. Zara’s commercial dexterity to mimic runway fashion and emerging street trends is largely unparalleled, meaning, new looks can make their way from the sketchpad to store shelves in two weeks flat. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Zaras-fast-fashion-is-as-unhealthy-as-fast-food/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Zaras-fast-fashion-is-as-unhealthy-as-fast-food/#item5681 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hold-back-to-the-future-its-a-myth-that-life-used-to-be-sweeter/ Have you noticed that these days it’s not just people who sell ‘handmade’ soap at markets complaining that our culture has become too high-tech, too overloaded with meaningless information, too much about instant gratification? Particularly at Christmas when everyone complains about empty consumerism it seems we’ve all bought into the notion that life was so much simpler and people so much nicer before the advent of the mass media. No road rage, no mass shootings in high schools, families sitting politely around the dinner table discussing literature. I reckon it’s time we test this belief empirically, by comparing the past and the present on a few issues. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hold-back-to-the-future-its-a-myth-that-life-used-to-be-sweeter/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hold-back-to-the-future-its-a-myth-that-life-used-to-be-sweeter/#item4709 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-dying-to-get-one-of-those-ipads-theyre-dying-to-make/ Call me a miserable old piece of shit but I reckon it’s pretty weird that on the same day that some of Australia’s most committed virgins are queuing up in the cold outside the Apple Store for the launch of the iPad, in China, they’re queuing up on the roof to kill themselves at the factory that manufactures them. If you want to know the story of globalisation, this one surely will do. On George St, Sydney, extra staff have been called in at the Apple Store to cope with the demand as hundreds of cashed-up geeks gather in a display of commodity fetishism which will hopefully be the subject of formal study by some sardonic anthropologist from the developing world. Meanwhile, not that far north at the Foxconn factory in China’s Hunan province, nets have been installed on the roof after an 11th employee hurled himself to his death as the workers struggle to meet a deadline which has been created by our demand. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-dying-to-get-one-of-those-ipads-theyre-dying-to-make/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/im-dying-to-get-one-of-those-ipads-theyre-dying-to-make/#item3183 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Fill-the-void-with-a-remote-controlled-beverage-system/ It’s no doubt a mark of my innate stoicism that I have until this point lived mostly happily without the benefit of The Remote Controlled Beverage Buggy ™. Fortunately the Sky Mall catalogue alerted me to the life-enhancing possibility of having liquid refreshments “secured” in a miniature dune buggy’s mounted drink holders and ferried from the fridge without me having to move a muscle aside from thumbing the console commands. Candidly the catalogue does note the one potential flaw in this scheme, that the “willing accomplice is not included”. Luckily I am married so getting the Beverage Buggy restocked for frequent journeys back to the couch should prove no problem. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Fill-the-void-with-a-remote-controlled-beverage-system/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Fill-the-void-with-a-remote-controlled-beverage-system/#item1238 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 The first thing that got me excited about Christmas was how seamlessly it merged with Halloween. One day the supermarket was full of orange, pumpkinesque loot buckets, and the next day it was filled with every Christmas symbol you can think of made from marshmallow, alongside special edition Toblerones that were tall enough to enter Grade 1. I fancied sucking on a marshmallow Madonna but they seemed to be sold out. Next year, I will be marketing edible, orange snowmen carrying Australian flags and wearing cute little “I Luv U” T-shirts. These will be targeted at those who want to get into the spirit of things from October to February but also want to keep their spending on useless special occasion crap under control.