Monday, March 29, 2010

The story of bottled water



This movie by the makers of "The story of stuff" is about bottled water, but it also taps (no pun intended) into something that is on my mind quite a lot: our consumer culture and our materialistic obsession. This subject really messes with my head.
I know that this material obsession is a product of our cultural upbringing (it's all in our heads) and that there is a lot of harm done because of our materialistic demands, but I'll be the first to admit I am a sucker for nice stuff!
I like nice clothes, shoes, sunglasses, bmx-bikes, surfboards, camera's, magazines (which contain more materialistic stuff), etc. I try to buy quality products that last longer, but I still consume a lot more products than I need to. I guess there is a part of me that's just passionate about consuming certain products.

So what's my point?
Go ask yourself am I passionate about consuming bottled water? I bet you're not really (you'll need help if you are), so let's all at least try to consume less off the stuff that were not even consuming out of enthusiasm but mainly out of habit. Bottled water is a good start, but I bet there is a lot of other stuff that we can easily do without.

1 comment:

  1. Great clip!
    And point taken, I actually couldn't agree more.
    We fight a neverending psychological battle with companies trying to persuade us to buy stuff we don't even need, and most of us aren't aware of it.
    I try to be critical, but even then I often find myself thinking: why the hell did I buy this!
    Awareness starts with the consumers (the holy 'market' companies love so much), but the solution lies with the companies themselves taking their responsability.

    Right, enough preaching. I'm off to buy me some coke.

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