The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Hindustan Times was the first newspaper to do a story on my off-consumption experiment, almost three months back. Last Sunday, Hindustan Times followed it up with another story.

I have been through many photo-shoots of late, but no photographer I have been shot by has been as inventive as Anand. It’s a mind-blowing experience to have two professional photographers shoot each other shoot you. The photograph below, taken by my new friend Kaustav, shows Anand shooting me, with Rana in the background.

The article itself, especially the headline, was a little misleading, and my mailbox is flooded with e-mails on how I’m giving away my fully-furnished house. As you know, the house is not mine to give; I’m only giving away (most of) the stuff inside the house.

I’m going through the mails, posts and comments now and I’ll post a compilation of the entries on my blog tomorrow. I don’t know yet who I’ll gift my stuff to, but I do know that it won’t be an easy decision.

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).

As a marketer, however, I love the art and science of marketing, I adore brands, and I’m hardwired into the idea of capitalist free markets driven by consumerism.

So, when I observe people wanting to spend less, swap instead of spend, go local, go organic, stop buying things, or generally say no to brands, I’m torn into two halves.

One part of me (me-as-a-person) knows exactly what they are talking about, because I feel equally overwhelmed by the brands + media + retail triumvirate.