Archive - Archive for the month of May, 2007

Ecology and marketing: beware of scams

Tuesday, 29 May, 2007

Last weekend, wanting to eradicate undesirable weeds that invade our terrace, I went to a gardening centre to buy an herbicide; I accept the fact that dandelion be part of our lawn’s ecological balance but refuse to see it invade the patio. On the other hand, concerned to use a weed killer without any toxicity […]

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Consumption and narcissism

Tuesday, 15 May, 2007

Absorbed with grading student papers and exams, I present a shorter than usual chronicle today. While briefer, it will nonetheless be interesting, because I know the subject to be highly controversial and that my comments will leave no one indifferent. Some will applaud my intervention, but others, perhaps a majority, will disagree with me. I […]

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The use of fear in SAAQ’s advertising

Tuesday, 8 May, 2007

Again this year, the SAAQ (Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec) displays a lack of discernment in its choice of advertising theme. Confronted with a degrading road safety record, it chooses to use fear and guilt to induce an attitude change in faulty drivers. The chosen theme for 2007 is «Accidents hurt… a lot of […]

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Kyoto and societal expects

Tuesday, 1 May, 2007

The media storm surrounding the Kyoto protocol, subsequent to Minister Baird’s announcement of a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, is a wonderful occasion for me to present the notion of societal expects. A growing number people seem to surround their consumption with concerns based on fundamental values of social equity and environmental safeguard. For example, […]

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