Yes, that’s what I said –
I’m the king of the world!
Yes, you heard it right —
I’m the king of the world!
Once more, with a little ‘yay!’ at the end —
I’m the king of the world!Yay!
I hope you remember how it feels to stand up and shout it out –
I’m the king of the world!
If you have forgotten, here’s Leonardo DiCaprio himself to remind you –
King Of The World - Titanic - Click here for more free videos
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
The April 2008 Issue of David Report: I Shop Therefore I Am (via TreeHugger and Santosh Maharshi) identifies some of the trends that led me towards my off consumption experiment:-
- From conspicuous consumption to conscious consumption.
- From brand-consciousness to background-consciousness.
- From synthetic to organic.
- From mass-produced to hand-crafted.
- From global to local.
- From short-term to sustainable.
- From fashionable to durable.
- From valuing things to valuing insights.
- From fitting in/ standing out to being.
- From buying more to buying less.
- From doing more to doing less.
- From multi-tasking to down-shifting.
- From buying to sharing/ exchanging.
- From owning to experiencing.
- From having to giving.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
The No Impact Experiment was started in November 2006 by New York based forty-something writer Colin Beavan.
The basic idea was to spend a year with his family — wife, toddler, and dog — in the heart of New York City while causing no net environmental impact.
This involved not doing things that hurt the earth (no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets) and doing things that help the earth (participating in garbage clean-up and reforestation projects).
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
I was at my friend Kanishka’s place the other day, when I pulled out a Ziploc bag from my bag. Here’s a more or less faithful transcript of the conversation it triggered off –
Kanishka: Why are you carrying around sandwiches in a plastic bag?
Gaurav: Ah! Haven’t I told you that I’m off consumption for a year?
Kanishka: (chuckles) I bet you won’t be able to spend a month without consuming alcohol! But what is the connection between not consuming alcohol and carrying around sandwiches?
I consider knowing how to make a good elevator pitch one of my best kept marketing secrets, so I thought that I’ll make a quick elevator pitch for ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’.
‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is my year-long blog-as-a-book experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.
The book is a record of two parallel quests — my quest as an individual to find the formula to turn consumerism-caused ennui into happiness, and my quest as a marketer to learn how to apply that formula to convert our collective ennui from consumption into a yelp of enthusiasm for consuming even more.
If you haven’t had your fill of McDonald’s from reading about my craving for McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap, you should have a look at Morgan Spurlock’s award-winning documentary film ‘Super Size Me’ (via Medea’s comment on my post).
Spurlock’s film follows a 30-day time period (in February 2003) during which he eats three meals a day from McDonald’s, Super Sizes his meal whenever offered, gives up exercise, gains 11 kg in body weight and experiences mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and possibly permanent liver damage.
Also filed in Case Studies, Food Cravings, Other Experiments
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Tagged Book, Book Deal, Controversy, Documentary, Experiment, Fast Food, McDonald's, McDonald's Paneer Salsa Wrap, Morgan Spurlock, Movie Deal, Super Size Me
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Saturday, March 29th, 2008
I’m totally amazed (and a little embarrassed) by the amount of conversation generated by my laundry situation both offline and online (especially on Twitter).
Now, some of my friends are suggesting that I get myself some life-casting equipment and convert this blog into a video reality show!
First, I never intended this experiment to become a reality show; a year of my life is worth more than that. Insights into why we consume? Yes! A new way to live a simple(r) life? Yes! A multi-million dollar book deal? Yes! A reality show? No way!
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Okay, here’s some good news.
The folks from Oxford Bookstore are actually considering ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ as a valid entry in their e-Author contest, even though they will leave the final decision to the appraisal committee.
From:
Date: Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: e-Author Entry: The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption
To: Gaurav Mishra
Thanks for submitting your entry for e-Author version 5.0.
Please confirm that the entry sent for the writing program is original and unpublished. We might not be able to consider your entry because it’s already been self-published through your blog. We will leave it to the decision of our Appraisal Committee.
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
For those who came in late: I have gone off consumption, not because of the absence of money or an overdose of ideology, but because I’m tired of buying things; and if my year-long experiment results in a multi-million dollar book deal, what a bonus that would be!
But, as I said, that’s only part of the story.
For a while now, I have been trying to deal with a dichotomy in my life (tweet).
As an individual, I don’t read the newspaper, watch TV, or listen to the radio, I haven’t “shopped” for six months, and I try not to travel beyond a 10 km radius (tweet).
Also filed in FAQ, Insights, Why Go Off Consumption?
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Tagged Brands, Consumer, Consumer Research, Ennui, Free Love, Gree, Local, Market Research, Marketer, Marketing, Media, Naomi Klein, No Impact Man, No Logo, Organic, Retail, Trend Watching
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If you have ever taken Economics 101, you’ll know that happiness is equal to consumption divided by desire.
Even otherwise, most of us understand this equation intuitively and, therefore, equate buying things with buying (the promise of) happiness.
However, I have been asking myself for a while if consumption itself follows the ‘bigger is better’ rule, if an increase in consumption results in an increase in happiness (tweet).
If you have ever maxed out your credit card buying the most recently fashionable clothes, gadgets, accessories or (insert your addiction here) you didn’t need, you’ll also know that consumption rarely satisfies desire.