Jezebel: Consumerism

Disney Will Be Taking Your Babies Now, Thank You

Erin Gloria Ryan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST

The Walt Disney Company, those white-glove-wearing cartoon animals who want to brand everything you touch or consume, is making a distinct push to become America's premiere baby outfitter, moving their brand's first impression on humans closer and closer to the moment of conception. Soon, we'll all be artificially inseminating ourselves with sound effect-making Donald Duck shaped turkey basters. More »

Worth It: Not Buying Crap

Jenna Sauers — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:10:00 EST

Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn't get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that's how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our recommendation of random things that we've actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we'd actually tell our friends about. And now we're telling you. More »

Rebecca Black's 'Friday' Used To Annoy Shoppers Into Spending Money At Kohl's

Erin Gloria Ryan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:25:00 EST

Target Employees Would Like To Occupy Own Homes This Thanksgiving

Erin Gloria Ryan — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:30:00 EST

Retailers have already pissed shoppers off by beginning their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving. Now, workers upset that their holidays will be interrupted by the call of the almighty dollar are making a stink. More »

We've Seen The Future Of Online Shopping, And It's Weird

Whitney Jefferson — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:45:00 EDT

Do you remember when online shopping first appeared and every company seemed to stress the wonderful opportunity of "shopping at home in your underwear"? If the company behind 3Live Shop has their way, you may want to think about covering up your nether-regions before logging on to make your next purchase. More »

Forever Shopping

Erin Gloria Ryan — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 17:40:00 EST

New York, December 26: Shoppers walk past a Forever 21 store in Times Square. I feel immense amounts of pity for people who have to work in retail today. Image via AP

Nearly Everything Labeled "Green" Is Actually Not

Jenna Sauers — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:30:00 EDT

95% of "eco-friendly" products are total bullshit. As if the idea that companies would mislead customers into buying (nice, green!) Widget A over (horrid, unsustainable!) Sprocket B weren't bad enough, businesses love "green" claims, because they make people buy stuff. More »

Is Fashion Smart?

Jenna Sauers — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:38:00 EDT

Paper editor Kim Hastreiter and incoming T editor Sally Singer dance around a key question in this long, fairly insightful conversation: Is it really possible to be a smart person and like fashion? More »

Is Women's Empowerment All About Buying Shit?

Anna North — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST

Kim Cattrall calls Sex and the City the answer to post-feminism, Nancy Meyers is all over the news, and it's starting to look like a the path to female empowerment is paved with Manolos and really nice bedsheets. More »

All Hail The Department Store

Hortense Smith — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:30:00 EST

There are very few places on earth quite like an old school department store. They are retro wonders, throwbacks to a time when shopping was an all-day experience: an entire world captured under one roof. More »

Toy Story

Maria — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:40:00 EST

In a new book, Christopher Jamison, a prominent Catholic cleric in England, has become a vocal critic of Disney and what he sees as the company's encouragement of materialism in children. While Jamison says that the Disney movies often have a moral message of good triumphing over evil, the products that go along with the movies encourage children to think that material objects will give them happiness and a place in the Disney world. Jamison says: "Where once morality and meaning were available as part of our free cultural inheritance, now corporations sell them to us as products." [Telegraph] More »

Yes We Can...Hook Up With Strangers On Election Night

Sadie Stein — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:40:00 EST

Apparently change came fast for plenty of opportunistic patriots last week — an unprecedented moment of national and romantic triumph! Like the sailor spontaneously sweeping a nurse into his arms in a symbolic burst of triumph on V-J Day, science teacher Jared Joiner tells the Washington Post's Monica Hesse that he was compelled to victorious face-sucking with a stranger. "It's like everybody felt they were automatically connected to everyone else. It felt like you were supposed to make out with someone when Obama won." More »

Confessions Of A Shopaholic

Maria — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:40:00 EDT

Researchers have developed a new scale for determining if someone is a serious shopaholic — a condition that can lead to family conflicts, financial problems, and depression. Previous methods of measuring compulsive shopping tended to focus on financial distress, something that compulsive shoppers with higher incomes may not experience. The newest scale shows that compulsive consumption is linked with materialism, positive feeling about buying things, and a tendency to hide or return purchases. Researchers who developed the new scale hope that it will show others that there is a need to reduce compulsive buying and materialism and educate people about the side-effects of overspending. Maybe they can have a word with the Bush Administration? [Science Daily] More »

Not-So-Gay Greetings

Maria — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Those gay marriage/commitment ceremony cards from Hallmark that the made the American Family Association take to the internets in protest are stirring up some more trouble in Idaho. Jordan's Hallmark stores, an independently-owned chain of card and gift shops in the Treasure Valley area has announced that they will not be carrying any of the gay-friendly cards in their stores. Drawing customers in with hate, not quality products, is a sad thing. [CBS News] More »

Sob $tory

Sadie Stein — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:20:00 EDT

When the author married "Leopold" a month after meeting him, some were skeptical. "My friends thought it was impetuous of me to go along with this breakneck courtship - especially since the ink was barely dry on my divorce from my first husband - but I could not be dissuaded. This was my lifelong image of what love should be like, and I was eager to start afresh," she writes in Marie Claire. And, sure enough, all was not rosy: seems what Hong interpreted as romantic quirkiness and childlike spontaneity was bipolar disorder. After Leopold's 4th suicide attempt, the couple called it quits. "Now, I am wary of overly romantic gestures, which is sad. But prudent." Yeah, well, the story of people suffering from serious illness is tragic. But hey, at least you can look as romantically melancholy as the pensive model the mag uses to illustrate "one woman's trip to the dark side and back"... dressed in "Sweater, $168, Calvin Klein; top, $78, Armani Exchange; pants, $79, Kenneth Cole Reaction." Sad - but stylish! [Marie Claire] More »

Living Oprah

Maria — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:30:00 EDT

This past weekend, our own Jessica Grose explored (again!) the world of consumer brand dedication with Living Oprah blogger Robyn Okrant. Though Okrant seems aware of the absurdity of her experiment, she does eventually fall prey to the seductive world of O's special type of branding. Okrant's husband observes that she has started to compare herself to people on TV and has started to worry about being "shlumpy," the subject of an Oprah episode earlier this year. While Okrant may or may not be damaging her own self-confidence by following the Oprah gospel, it is an interesting exploration of what happens when we follow the advice of magazines and TV personalities. [NY Times] More »

Tampax has announced that it will launch...

Maria — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:20:00 EDT

Tampax has announced that it will launch a group called the "MonthlyGiftClub" (as in a menstrual period is a "monthly gift") for the tween social networking community Stardoll. For those of you over the age of, oh, 13, Stardoll is basically just a really watered-down version of Second Life, where girls can create avatars and join clubs. Anyway, the MonthlyGiftClub will provide members with white clothing (taking a "visual cue" from tampon ads that signal that a brand's products are "safe and absorbent") and members can sign up to receive free samples of Tampax Pearl tampons. Sounds okay, but maybe a better "visual cue" would be to give non-members sweatshirts to wrap around their waists and eventually have one girl run to the locker room in tears after some idiot boys point out spots on her backside? [Brand Week] More »

Mad Men Is Stimulating Consumerism In The Midst Of A Recession

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:00:00 EDT

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Each week, Mad Men has been killing me softly with its wardrobe and set design. That era of early to mid-'60s is undeniably attractive, particularly all the Eames-style furnishings and wall art. But it's the waist-cinching, curve hugging dresses that really get me. They only further prove my point that tent dresses are rags from hell. Could you imagine how those frocks would evaporate any and all of the vampy, sexiness Joan Holloway is dripping with? Anyway, I've been well aware since first viewing this show that it makes me want a cigarette in the worst -but most delightful-way. (Which kinda defeats the purpose of the Welbutrin I've been taking.) However, this week's episode really drove home for me how much Mad Men makes me want to spend my money on a whole new wardrobe and decor. The fact that it's a show about advertising makes it so meta. After the jump, stills from the most coveted possessions on this week's episode. More »

Tastes Like Slobber

Maria — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:20:00 EDT

What happens when you cross an over-saturated bottled water market with a Japanese person whose loose understanding of English isn't going to stop them from slapping it on everything? You get Pet Sweat. Mm, sounds...disgusting? Well, we can only hope that this is the result of an English mix-up for water marketed for pets and not, you know, actual bottled sweat from puppies. On second thought, who would buy bottled water for pets anyways? Surely nothing this absurd would happen in America, right? Right? (Image via WOW.) [WOW] More »

Hey You! What Did You Spend Your Stimulus Check On?

Maria — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Well, it looks like those stimulus checks from the government are starting to trickle in, and everyone is going crazy about what to buy! Apparently the checks are working and May's retail sales were "better than expected" (it turns out when you give people money, they spend it!). However, the May deficit for the government hit record heights thanks to all those $300-$600 checks made out to John and Jane Taxpayer, but who's complaining? (Besides some economists, Democrats, and others who think promoting intense consumerism is the last thing American needs?) Everyone loves (sort of not really) free money! The real question is: How did you spend the cash? More »

If Vogue Readers Stop Shopping, How Will We Ever Cure AIDS?

Moe — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:30:36 EDT

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Vogue, in case you didn't catch this, doesn't really spend much time trying to distance itself from the whole consumerism ponzi scheme. Like for instance, November's issue, aside from featuring a $4200 wood bangle bracelet and a story about this Vogue-sponsored AIDS benefit thing called, awesomely, "Shop Till AIDS Drops," contains a huge gazillion-page spread on the finalists for the Vogue/CDFA Fashion Fund awards, a competition I know about because seems to be covered relentlessly in Woman's Wear Daily, which is owned by Conde Nast, the parent company of Vogue, in which Vogue and this industry organization that is probably also owned by Conde Nast, give away $200,000 to one of ten up-and-coming fashion designers that Vogue has spent the past twelve months promoting so mercilessly that they already have their own Target collections, and therefore don't really need $200,000, but you know, it's all about generating more coverage by holding a fancy party to give fashionistas an excuse to wear the designers' clothes and, one imagines, get photographed wearing them in an upcoming issue of Vogue. So imagine my confusion when! More »