Vanity: The Free- Green Motivator

By: Jennifer Moore
My family doctor once advised me, “Work out to look good. People who exercise for vanity do so for life, people who exercise for health, go through exercise phases.” At first when my doctor said this to me, I wanted to jump at him and say, “But you’re a doctor! You are supposed to be concerned about health, not looks.” Then I thought, wait a minute, that is exactly what my doctor was most concerned about, health –he wanted me to exercise for results that were motivating to me personally, so that I would continue to do something healthy for myself. His plan was in short, simply genius. And, I believe, if we applied this idea to the environment, we could be simply genius as well. In other words, telling people that they are helping the earth is not going to be enough to motivate them to actually sort their trash, or to reuse their grocery bags, or to take a bike ride once in a while, or to buy organic food. We must offer incentives, and since our government is out of money, resources, funding, credit, and well a whole host of financial basics for a solid economy –why not motivate people with the one incentive that is free and universally desired, beauty?
Consumerism and materialism have become most prominent in the last hundred years, although they originated in long before that. Everywhere, something and everything is for sale, on sale, and going on sale. New editions, new models, and updated versions are offered to induce customers into buying products they “really want” and that they are subconsciously manipulated to believe will make them “look good”, but that they often do not “need”. Much of the environmental campaigns against these two trends of shopaholics are aimed at stopping the need to constantly buy and revising the idea that beauty, luxury, and vanity are everything.
But, with these two trends so prevalent in global and particularly American culture today, perhaps it is ludicrous to try and stop them. It has often been said, “if you can’t beat em’, join em’ “ and I believe that is exactly what we need to do jumpstart environmental campaigns today. Sure, in a perfect world, the need to sell health, sustainability, climate-change awareness would be nonexistent, since one would think those would be intrinsic values to citizens of the world –but chances are most people really do not care beyond the direct impact to them.
So here is what I propose. How about we sell the environmental campaigns? If we can market the organic foods and fabrics, sophisticated recycling bins, and stylish grocery bags, then we can appeal to the human sense of vanity, which is far more motivating than the sense of health and wellness –as pathetic as that may be. Nobody is embarrassed of a sinus infection, but a pimple –you might as well just stay in bed all day. Now is the time to revolutionize the green-field. We have got to start designing ecologically beneficial items that are technologically savvy, luxurious, and better than the cheaper ones we already have. Take organic fruit for instance. Many people know that it is good for the environment, but few are aware that it actually tastes better two. Of course riding your bike is a way to save gas, but it may also help you to shed a few of those post-holiday pounds.
At the bottom of this blog, I have included a link to a CBS special that discusses green-fashion. And, to my surprise and probably yours, the outfits are actually attractive. I personally would wear one of them regardless of they were earth-friendly. By offering environmentally safe alternatives that appeal to the same sense of style already in our culture, we can inspire people to go green without the expense of their precious vanity. Check it out here!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/23/earlyshow/main2508464.shtml
*Just click on play video, once you enter this URL into your web browser.