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Western MA Libraries Organize Community Alternatives to Holiday Consumerism and Consumption

Holidays are a Time to Give and Regift During the holiday season many Western MA libraries organize community alternatives to holiday consumerism and consumption while enabling their youth patrons to think about giving rather than just receiving for the holidays. For over 20 years the Dickinson Memorial Library in Northfield has hosted an annual Children’s Holiday Bazaar for their youth patrons. For several months leading up to the bazaar the library asks town… Read More

Category: Franklin County, Hampshire County, Sustainability Tags: Alternative to Holiday Giving, Consumerism, Consumption, Holidays, Regifitng, western massachusetts

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood New Documentary Film Premiering in Northampton (2009) “The consumer embryo begins to develop during the first year of existence. Children begin their consumer journey in infancy. And they certainly deserve consideration as consumers at that time.“ – James U. McNeal | Pioneering Youth Marketer This unsettling quote by a “Pioneering Youth Marketer” opens the critically-acclaimed new documentary film, Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. Produced locally… Read More

Category: Article, Books, CCFC, Economy, Hilltown Families, Marketing to Children, Movies, Northampton, Resources, Suggested Activity, Take Action Tags: Adriana Barbaro, Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, Commercials, Consumerism, Hyperconsumerism, Marketing, Media Education Foundation

Video Review: The Story of Stuff

Throughout the 20-minute film, activist Annie Leonard, the film’s narrator and an expert on the materials economy, examines the social, environmental and global costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. Her illustration of a culture driven by stuff allows her to isolate the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began.