More money in your bank account?
Watch this documentary and you'll succeed easy peasy
It is oh so tempting: Black Friday and all those discounts. I also have to speak sternly to myself in the mirror not to make yet another impulse purchase. Here’s a tip for those who also struggle not to fill their (online) shopping cart completely: watch the new Netflix documentary ‘Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy’. Trust me, you'll be cured immediately. This doc reveals how companies ensure that we just keep buying.
The five commandments
We crawl into the classroom for a lesson in marketing: use these five tips and you will earn a lot of money. What they really mean to say: these are the tricks that big brands use to convince you that there is still room in your closet for that twelfth pair of jeans. From consciously overproducing to false promises of sustainability. Companies know exactly how to manipulate us, and we just fall for it. While only ‘Money, Money, Money’ is played in the headquarters, we are left with too much stuff. And that is exactly what the documentary makers want to address.
Whistleblowers
In the documentary, former employees of Amazon, Apple, and Adidas share how they were focused on just one thing for years: making a profit. Everything always had to be more, faster, and easier to sell as much as possible. What that means for the environment, for example, is less important. Brands control what they show us and what they don’t. If you want to say something as an employee, you end up on the street. With this documentary, the former employees try to warn us. Because all those mountains of clothing will eventually be thrown away. We might think we are donating it to people in need, but that’s not entirely true. In Ghana alone, where 30 million people live, 15 million pieces of clothing end up there every week. It’s just way too much. The idea that you’re not making someone else happy with those old sneakers but that they end up on a big pile somewhere is less pleasant.
The big brands won’t be happy about it, but this doc does give us a fuller bank account. ‘Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy’ is now available on Netflix.
Image: Netflix
