A naukri.com initiative
Moneyweb
4w
376
Netflix’s ‘Buy Now!’ shows the toll of the global shopping bonanza
- Netflix’s documentary Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy aims to reveal the deceptive marketing practices employed by big-name brands by using silly animations and extravagant graphics of cityscapes flooded with waste to shed a light on the growing issue of overconsumption. The black Friday shopping spree contributes to mounting waste and climate change as a result of increased consumerism. The documentary features ex-employees of companies like Amazon and Unilever who speak about how their past jobs and employers contributed to overconsumption.
- As of Tuesday, the film received 7.1 million views worldwide, and with 2.4 million posts on TikTok, the audience has called out the harmful aspects of overconsumption, according to director Nic Stacey. Amazon receives much focus with former employee Maren Costa, a climate change activist, who was fired after organizing internally to get the company to take it more seriously.
- The film's message spans different industries, online and in-person shopping, and countries, with a focus on the significant role of the internet, online shopping and advertising in driving consumption to greater levels and creating a lot of waste.
- Concerns around pollution are challenging to convey, and the documentary uses creative animations and visualizations to make statistics and facts easier to understand and to highlight the problem of hiding our waste from ourselves. For instance, 2.5 millions shoes are produced every hour, and portraying this fact on a New York street, one can realize the harm caused by waste.
- The film's message is to encourage consumers to be more mindful of buying goods and look for alternatives like used items before buying new ones, creating a more sustainable future.
- The growing significance of Black Friday as a shopping day, and in countries with no cultural context, has also contributed to increasing numbers of people spending and buying more.
- Ultimately, the documentary calls for increased corporate responsibility for producing better-quality items that would have a longer afterlife, sustainable solutions to waste, and better decision-making by consumers.
- Apart from individuals, corporations should take responsibility for better-produced clothing, fewer promotions and advertisements, and greater transparency. The 80% that cannot be resold should be repurposed or recycled, with companies funding the development of these industry solutions.
- One of the first step's consumers could take is when thinking of buying something, spend at least 5 minutes looking online if there are similar used items before buying it new, reducing harm and waste in minerals and energy consumption.
- Lastly, hitting pause on reflex clicking, reviewing purchases from yesterday, and considering if it could have waited might help make more thoughtful and careful consumption choices.
Read Full Article
22 Likes
For uninterrupted reading, download the app