Marketing "back to basics"....

During the late 80s and the 90s, Americans were plied with such fare as "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and told that they too, no matter what reality dictated, could enjoy the "good life." Designer clothes, luxury cars, cashmere sweaters, spa get-aways could be yours--and on credit.

It seems to me that we need a new product and a new advertising campaign, one that is more honest and focused on reality. Making basics chic should be its goal. Right now there are still people who are whistling past the economic graveyard. Corporations are still marketing luxury.

I am suggesting that we need to take the initiative and sell simplicity and get pricing in line with the reality of people's ability to purchase goods and services. For example, the Seventh Generation dish soap I purchased the other day is doing something like this on their labeling. The label says that for every 25 oz. bottle of their plant-based product over petrochemical-based products, 86,000 gallons of petroleum is not used and that would be enough to heat 4,900 homes. Now, I like this product and right now it is a little more pricey than I would care for it to be. However, it doesn't need to stay that way. It is a product I recommend, as I do the Restore the Earth line of laundry detergents and the goat milk soap made by the wife of our local organic grocer.

Each one of us can amplify and sell a way of life that does not poison the earth and create markets for products that can simplify life for many in these times. If we put half the energy into promoting clean, healthy, and affordable life styles that corporations did promoting luxury and decadence, then we can make life better for ourselves and the world.

That's what they pay their ad departments for.

The coming bankruptcy of the middle class will force them into "basics" quite efficiently, thanks.