Buycott philanthropy frames consumerism as the solution to the inequalities it creates

Evidence

The ideological blackmail that has been in place since the original Live Aid concerts in 1985 has insisted that ‘caring individuals’ could end famine directly, without the need for any kind of political solution or systemic reorganization. It is necessary to act straight away, we were told; politics has to be suspended in the name of ethical immediacy. Bono’s Product Red brand wanted to dispense even with the philanthropic intermediary. ‘Philanthropy is like hippy music, holding hands’, Bono proclaimed. ‘Red is more like punk rock, hip hop, this should feel like hard commerce’. The point was not to offer an alternative to capitalism – on the contrary, Product Red’s ‘punk rock’ or ‘hip hop’ character consisted in its ‘realistic’ acceptance that capitalism is the only game in town. No, the aim was only to ensure that some of the proceeds of particular transactions went to good causes. The fantasy being that western consumerism, far from being intrinsically implicated in systemic global inequalities, could itself solve them. All we have to do is buy the right products. — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 34

Categorization

• SEED: Product Red branding ‘philanthropy as punk rock’ is a sharp case for an essay contrasting real anti-capitalist organization with boutique-cause consumerism.
• XREF: connects to: Ethical consumerism claims shopping itself can solve systemic global poverty — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 34; The corporate-backed ‘standard of living’ concept framed welfare as consumption — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 192; Ethical consumerism replaced political boycott with paid market-based moral gestures — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 405 (+4 more)

Related

• Ethical consumerism claims shopping itself can solve systemic global poverty (similarity 0.91)
• Consumption-based charity substitutes for and eliminates collective political response (similarity 0.83)
• Cause-marketing inoculates itself from criticism by pairing profit with charity (similarity 0.79)
• Cause-marketing brands replace political response with individualized consumption (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Ethical consumerism claims shopping itself can solve systemic global poverty #expands (0.82) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 34
• Consumption-based charity substitutes for and eliminates collective political response #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1465
• Ethical consumerism replaced political boycott with paid market-based moral gestures #corroborates (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 405
• The corporate-backed ‘standard of living’ concept framed welfare as consumption #corroborates (0.72) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 192
• Venture philanthropy reframes justice as enlightened self-interest for markets. #corroborates (0.72) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 423
• Consumer conformity in culture industry is exploitation dressed as humanitarianism #corroborates (0.72)
• Secular modernity frames consumer capitalism as a global project of equal pleasure rights #corroborates (0.70) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 734