The Checkout After reflecting with friends on our views on consumerism, this incredibly witty satirical consumer affairs series was brought to my attention. Presented by some of Australia’s most notorious comedic investigative journalists, the series sheds light on issues within our consumer culture, how marketing, statistics and language is used to persuade us to buy. Such a show, some even appropriate to air with upper primary students, is integral to creating awareness about a culture that underpins our society, and one where we are being positioned into naivety. The most recent episode I watched investigated the different formulas of Nurofen and whether “targeted pain relief”, and different formulas for different pains was something that could be scientifically plausible; it’s not. Spoiler alert, the Nurofen marketing team has created a pink packet for “period pain” and a red packet for “back pain”, but within those capsules the formula is identical.
However this wasn’t the most interesting aspect for me, it was that since Nurofen is now widely available in supermarkets instead of having to be prescribed or as an over-the-counter medication, pharmaceutical information is not available to those who were buying the pain relief. Therefore it was up to us, the customer, to use our discretion as health care dummies to make choices. So where before, a chemist would recommend the generic brand and allowing us to choose on the basis of price, now we are at the mercy of the marketing teams of the drug companies, being positioned to pay twice as much for the same chemistry. This is modern consumer culture: our naivety and laziness is being capitalised on by big business, and then being used against us to convince us to buy more.
But, as always, education could provide the key to overcoming such a poisonous culture. By educating ourselves and our students, we can understand our behaviours and where they stem from, and create awareness to make better choices about where and how we buy. That’s why these TV shows are so important because, without creating a “we’re all doomed” feel, they enlighten us.
Reference:
The Checkout (2013) Buy Now Pay Forever (video). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfNqBP900L8
The Sustainable Consumerist 