NEW MEANINGS OF CONSUMPTION IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABILITY AND FASHION

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26758/15.1.19

University of Bucharest, Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Communication, Iuliu Maniu Boulevard, no. 1-3, Leu A Complex, 6^th floor; E-mail: dan.podaru@fjsc.ro

Abstract

Objectives: The realities of the contemporary Romanian society highlight a series of symbolic transformations at the level of consumption, at the level of everyday life and at the level of how individuals perceive the reality in which they live. All these changes in consumption are largely generated by the powerful sustainability campaigns which are transmitted to us through all existing media channels. Therefore, using the method of observation, I have tried to identify relevant aspects of everyday consumption that have been symbolically strongly altered in the last period of time, inducing new consumer roles and transforming consumers into collaborators of large corporations.

Even though modernity offers us state-of-the-art technologies and gadgets, even though we have access to information in an ultra-fast way, people’s lives have not improved or simplified in many ways. The causes of this kind of transformation can be manifold, but this material aims to prove that at the forefront are CSR campaigns and the important role of the media in contemporary society. This is the research purpose that this material is aiming to bring into discussion.

Material and methods: The research was carried out using a qualitative methodology – more precisely, participatory observation. The observation was made in the interval between January 2023 and August 2024 in different locations from Bucharest, especially in markets, agglomerated malls and urban locations.

Results and Conclusions: The conclusion of this material is that through hegemonic campaigns, large corporations turn consumers into extensions of themselves, using persuasion and awareness campaigns that are broadcast and convince the public that they must get involved in and join seemingly noble ideals. These, in fact, do nothing but restrict freedom of speech and consumer rights.

Keywords: symbolic transformations in consumption, hegemony, sustainability, semiotics, consumer restrictions.

Suggested citation (APA)

Podaru, D.N. (2025). New meanings of consumption in the context of sustainability and fashion. Anthropological Researches and Studies, 15, 285-296. https://doi.org/10.26758/15.1.19

Introduction

One can contemplate and understand the evolution of the Romanian society starting from different academic assumptions. These different angles may be historical, considering the way in which society has developed after the communism fell back in the late 80s, but they are also sociological, judging from the perspective of how the existing structural dynamics developed and changed throughout the entire society; these perspectives may, as well, concern the new ways in which individuals interact, depending on their age.

There can also be an anthropological perspective, for example we may trace the impact (beneficial or not) of technological devices on the current Romanian society and how this interaction has reshaped the human interaction. A few years ago, I proposed to one of my students, a keen selfie-taker, as a research topic for her bachelor’s degree paper, the selfie phenomenon. She was supposed to study selfies from the communication point of view, but she was also supposed to test the assumption according to which selfies could be a form of pathology. Three or four years after preparing that paper, my student contacted me and talked to me about several TV reports covering research that had been carried out in the USA focusing on a new form of pathology: the borderline selfie. The research done by Balakrishnan and Griffits entitled An Exploratory Study of “Selfitis” and the Development of the Selfitis Behavior Scale indicates that the selfie phenomenon is a form of pathology, altering individuals’ mood, their perception of their own social status, their need for attention, their social integration etc. (Balakrishnan, Griffits, 2018, para. 15).

Fashion is yet another element that cannot be ignored by those who study the way in which societies evolve, and which, due to the scale of this phenomenon, has touched on multiple areas of activity (culture, commerce, industry), even if, in the past, the term fashion was only touching upon the phenomenon of clothing. From a theoretical standpoint, there are several perspectives on the penetration of fashion. The classical perspectives, as put forth by Veblen (2009) and Simmel (1998), posit that imitation of the dominant classes by the others, which were separated by a permanent gap, was the driving force behind the establishment of fashion trends. In contrast, the more modern perspectives view fashion as encompassing not only clothing but also lifestyles (Vergani, 2010, p. 805). However, it cannot be ignored and fail to be noted that the astonishingly rapid development of telephones or the way holiday destinations are chosen, as well as the themes of the CSR campaigns that generate excitement and polarize individuals, are fundamentally based also on the use and speculation of certain sorts of fashion whose lifespan is ephemeral. If, at the beginning of the early 1990s, the campaigns advertising men’s fragrances would feature models with flawless and muscular bodies like the Olympian gods, today’s models are androgynous and the signs of diversity, imposed as a form of new ideology, are to be found everywhere in the new visuals of the advertising campaigns. Starting from this sort of reasoning, it can also be considered that sustainability trends or their effects on the everyday life may also be based on or interfere with elements that are also based on the logic of fashion, the fashion phenomenon, and the constitutive arguments on which they develop.

As one could find natural, the analysis will be focused on the symbolic, semiotic, and codified meanings that the new fashion trends have managed to squeeze in Romania’s contemporary society and beyond, especially as a sort of daily practice in the life of the younger generations.

It is important to acknowledge that Romanian society is not evolving in isolation; rather, it is progressing in accordance with the developmental trajectory of the European one and, potentially, the other global societies. Globalisation can be defined as a phenomenon that has been generated and propagated by several factors, including the internationalisation of commercial exchanges, the breaking down of state barriers and, of course, the propagation of common fashions worldwide.

In the contemporary society, individuals are subjected to a constant barrage of advertising and media campaigns that have gradually transformed their daily interactions. These interactions have shifted from a passive mode of consumption to an active engagement with the media spectacle, which has in turn become a defining aspect of the modern existence. Our life is strongly impacted by models and consumption, by the pervasiveness of the everyday media spectacle, and by a society that is shaped by hyper-consumerism, the one which Aldous Huxley (2011), Guy Debord (2011), and Gilles Lipovetsky (2007) who have anticipated and theorised it, in separate historical periods, thereby unarguably becoming pioneers and “prophets” by how they understood and described the future society, long before it turned into what we can see today.

The evolution of society has validated the observations made by Huxley in the 1930s regarding the rise of anomie and human conformism in his novel The Brave New World. Many of the symbolic elements and the evolution of society that the author has described in his novel have become the everyday realities with which we must contend. Additionally, in the late 1960s, Guy Debord set forth in his work La Société du spectacle which was seen as a comprehensive analysis of the underlying causes, impact, and consequences of consumer society, particularly in relation to the influence of the society of the spectacle in the human society itself. Once again, the perspectives brought to the fore by Guy Debord have come true and even have populated the universe in which we live. In this regard, it can be recalled what Guy Debord, the one who, discussing the stages of the degradation of the consumption society that he calls la société du spectacle, explains that the first step into the human degradation is when people transit from being to having, and the second step of degradation is the transition from having to appearing (Debord, 2011, p. 14) Debord is a pioneer in understanding and analysing the effects of media and advertising on society. Today we are witnessing the fulfilment of Debord’s prophecies regarding the effects of the permanent exposure of individuals to campaigns promoted through any type of channel, the Society of the Spectacle becoming a reality from a metaphor and the media spectacle, including CSR and sustainability campaigns, transforming the collective mind, forcing it to align itself with what the new hegemony of corporate marketing, masquerading as CSR campaigns, proposes.

Not lastly, Gilles Lipovetsky, in Le bonheur paradoxal, succeeds in defining and outlining the current realities of the contemporary hyper-consumption society, which brings together the anomic, utopian, dehumanized society proposed by Huxley and the society of the spectacle that lives through and for the spectacle, which Debord proposed. Today, from Lipovetsky’s point of view, we live in a society of hyper-consumption that has succeeded in generating a new type of humanity that revolves around homo consumericus or the ‘turbo-consumer’. Along these lines, it should be noted here one of the definitions of turbo-consumerism, which – according to Lipovetsky – “represents the transition from the age of choice to the age of hyper-choice, from mono-choice to multi-choice, from discontinuous consumerism to continuous consumerism, from individualistic consumption to hyper-individualistic consumption” (Lipovetsky, 2007, p. 88)

The significance of the preamble of this article needs to be explained, and the explanation exists in two real concrete layers, two experiences that have raised questions in my mind about the meaning and direction towards which the contemporary society is heading.

This article aims at critically tracing the new details of contemporary consumption and the way in which consumers are being made accountable and led into taking action that should have actually been the responsibility of big producers. This paper is in no way against the actions that support sustainability or the environmental efforts, but is merely a reflexive form of thinking that seeks to highlight the abnormality of certain strategic actions which it considers to be part of well-designed marketing and economic plans which are negatively altering the producer-consumer relationship. All actions taken in order to save and sustain the natural biodiversity that this planet has been offering us for thousands of years must unequivocally go back to the major producers who generate pollution worldwide.

Material and methods

The research was carried out using a qualitative methodology – more precisely, participatory observation. The observation was made in the period January 2023- August 2024 in different locations from Bucharest, especially in markets, agglomerated malls and urban locations. A structured data collection tool was not used, but notes were taken and a secondary video-photo documentation was made. Both in the case of unstructured observation notes and in the case of the collection of video-photo documents, the anonymization of both the people who interacted with the researcher and the place where the observation took place was ensured.

At the time of the data collection, it was impossible to note or record the data in real time, but regarding this type of impediment, including the literature states that it is difficult to record observed data in real time and that it may be logged retrospectively. (Jupp, 2010, p. 299)

During the participatory observation, an objective distance has been kept from the studied events and social situations, the researcher having taken part in them but not interfering or influencing the course of these events or social situations.

The data analysis was carried out from the thematic perspective, based on the triangulation of the previously mentioned two sets of data and was carried out in the period June-August 2024. The analysis aimed to identify the main themes associated with sustainability, the impediments encountered in the adoption of sustainable practices.

Data analysis

Hedonism 

One first experience was to join some friends who planned to spend the night out in a modern pub, which was the choice of most intellectuals and hipsters, and where – we were surprised to find out – tables could only be booked for two hours. Moreover, I noticed that there was also a booking app which you could use to select the two-hour time slot you wanted. When we arrived at the venue, we noticed a series of symbolic, graphic signs telling customers to speak slowly, as it is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1 (to see Figure 1, please click here)

This experience imposed a reflection on the new kinds of constraints that modern society puts on people. The customer experience in restaurants has changed significantly in recent times. Traditionally, customers could stay as long as they liked or as long as they afforded. However, the introduction of new types of trendy establishments has created a more limited customer experience. This new format conditions customers in terms of both time and behaviour. This experience prompted me to investigate further and observe other types of deviations or renunciations that the new humanity proposes as standards and ways of life for the new generations. From a certain angle, the new dynamic that will be discussed and analysed below is nothing else but a further evolution from the consumerist society proposed decades ago by Lipovetsky. In his book, Paradoxical Happiness, he explained that consumption was inseparable from the hedonistic perspective (Lipovetsky, 2007, p. 51)

From an objective standpoint, it is evident that the turbo-consumer was at the core of the consumption experience, fulfilling both the hedonistic and the ego-driven desires. However, today’s limitations on consumption (as evidenced by numerous examples) have effectively nullified the hedonistic perspective, which placed the consumers at the forefront and forced them to make numerous compromises, ultimately leading to an unsatisfactory consumption experience. Nowadays, the consumer is invited to leave the table after two hours spent in a restaurant; finds it difficult to drink from a soft drink bottle because the cap is attached to the bottle which makes it more difficult to drink; is turned into a sanitation worker who collects waste selectively; must request three straws in the restaurant because the new paper ones dissolve within seconds and leave a specifically unpleasant taste in the drink, etc. All of these elements that are specific to modern consumption are certainly far from providing the consumer with a hedonistic perspective, but on the contrary, they often create for them unpleasant sensations and experiences. There is also a symbolic, detailed perspective, which refers to the costs of these new restrictive experiences. The reality of this perspective was elucidated through a discussion with a fellow sociologist who, after recounting the afore-mentioned experience, posited that individuals are subject to restrictions and limitations without any form of immediate benefit to compensate for this type of marketing policy.

It must be understood that – by decoding the symbolism of the new restrictions on consumption – one can also notice the new types of values that individuals cherish and use obediently. Customer satisfaction used to be one of the most important indicators that companies tracked in their regular surveys. Nowadays, considering these types of activities, customer satisfaction seems to no longer be one of the real, not just declarative, priorities of corporations. In addition, Carol Ryan’s article, Luxury Stores are Bursting with Unsold Stuff published in the Wall Street Journal, provides insight into the strategies employed by prominent fashion brands such as Prada and Christian Dior in the wake of the pandemic. Following a significant decline in sales, these companies ceased selling their products through major retailers like Harrods. Instead, they leased commercial space within these retailers, offering their products directly to consumers. This type of strategy was implemented to be able to block and control the discounts that the large retailers traditionally offered at certain times of the year. It may be observed that luxury brands stopped discounting in flagship stores after the pandemic period (Ryan, 2024, para. 5-6).

The contemporary fashion world is preoccupied with innovations in recycling and sustainability. One example is the Stella McCartney brand, which works with the company VEGEA to create clothing and leather goods made from alternative materials that replace polluting materials. In a nutshell, VEGEA and Stella McCartney are making textiles from grapes, renewable materials, new less toxic versions of water-based polyurethane etc. (Stella McCartney, 2023, para 1-10)

This type of preoccupation may be observed in the FMCG area as well, and as an example stands Dorna, a bottled water company, which proudly claims in diverse communication campaigns the fact that they are the first water company in Romania that marketed their water in a PET bottle made from 100% recycled materials. (Coca Cola, 2020, para 1) Here’s how mega-companies can speculate tendencies and the consumers’ perspective, also positioning themselves on the market through sustainability themes which are so sensitive and visible today.

This type of activity also serves to emphasise and outline the fact that, at present, the freedom, diversity, and possibility for the consumer customer to have tangible commercial, cultural, and emotional benefits at certain times through periodic discounts is limited or, indeed, reduced.

Through this type of marketing strategy, the big brands affect, to a good extent, the hyper-consumer, the one about whom Gilles Lipovetsky said that the person who visits a discount store is not a sub-consumer, but a hyper-consumer who refrains from certain expenses to have access, elsewhere, to other ludic, communicative, emotional consumption (Lipovetsky, 2007, p. 80).

Society is exposed to a form of amputation, of limitation of the authentic everyday consumer experiences. In this sense, Antonio Amuza will be quoted, who quite originally analyses authenticity from a sociological point of view, and concludes that authenticity could be a chameleon concept and that it could act on all instances of consumer behaviour, whether it is about ideas, goods or messages (Amuza, 2021, p. 77).

Corporate influence

Some of the elements observed in the last period will now be reviewed, and the reference made is to how unhappy some people are with the new soft drink bottle caps. Fastening the cap to the bottle is an innovation promoted through CSR campaigns, which explain that this new system will reduce plastic pollution in the seas and oceans, ultimately generating a new form of environmentalism and an expression of sustainability towards our planet. The new experience of drinking from plastic bottles is unpleasant, uncomfortable, and restrictive for the consumer. However, just like in the first case of accepting time limits in a pub, consumers have accepted, without apparent reactions, the new restrictions imposed by soft drink producers and their new marketing strategies which are aimed towards the younger generation who is ideologically more inclined to accept environmental and ecological trends.

How influencers react to these marketing strategies has also been closely observed. It is clear that there is a new logic at play here (which also exists in other new types of interaction) where the consumer is both user and institution. This is how production companies and governments are recycling products without offering the consumer any form of material or other reward. The way producers and customers interact is changing. Symbolically speaking, consumers are becoming more like employees, working for the big production companies. The only benefit that the consumer can have and invoke is a symbolic one, with matters relating to a certain cultural perspective and, to a certain extent, a perspective that brings a form of social responsibility. Considering the consumer’s new relationship with the new types of consumption, those which force us to give up in countless ways, and drawing a parallel between the above-mentioned relationship and the semiotic relationship between the signified and the signifier, we can conclude that the value of the new consumer is diminishing, and that he is becoming a subordinate, a doer following the messages which appear to be exciting and beneficial, but which, when viewed in subtext, have a strong hegemonic connotation, generating immediate material benefits and improved standing for large corporations. In other words, the consumer has been transformed by hegemonic means into an appendage of the corporations. It is logical to wonder whether it had not been more natural for the main beneficiaries, the big producers of soft drinks, beer, etc., to allocate larger shares from their profits to make the planet a greener place? For example, according to data found on statista.com on PepsiCo Inc.’s worldwide revenues, they took an upward trend between 2007 and 2023, rising from $39.47 bn in 2007 to no less than $91.47 bn in 2023 (Statista, 2024).

So, they use different marketing strategies or CSR campaigns with symbolic value and emotional impact (like sustainability, global warming, pollution etc.). It is clear that large corporations are limiting the hedonistic experiences and benefits which consumers used to enjoy. They are forcing consumers to live less authentic, time-limited experiences that lack sensoriality and depth. Some of these experiences are even unpleasant, like the new caps and straws. Corporations are transforming consumers from people who are entitled to gratification and reward for purchasing a product to recyclers of product packaging or endorsers of CSR campaigns, promoted, and funded by big businesses. It is all happening under the guise of the new symbolism created, pushed, and promoted by the big global economic players. Society and individuals just accept it as normal, even though it means giving up some consumer rights and freedoms, and maybe even a little bit of satisfaction. And this is happening in a society that is supposed to be all about pleasure and individualism. In a subtle way, we can take the definition of hegemony from Stuart Hall’s perspective, the one who states that hegemony is based on “the structure of representations which form culture’s alphabet and grammar are instruments of social power” (Hall as cited in During, 2001, p. 97).

A few years ago, in 2018, I was at a meeting between the manager of a big company that makes aluminium cans for drinks and other types of containers made of plastic, and officials from the district authorities having jurisdiction in Bucharest. The manager of the respective company was interested in buying all the recyclable waste – glass, plastic, aluminium etc. collected in that district. This is one of the solutions that could be implemented in a generalised way and which would bring benefits to both producers and local authorities, and therefore to the government, but also to consumers, who could thus maintain their privileged position as consumers without having to become business tools that support the recycling actions of corporations.

Recently, in a study made by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategies (IRES) between April 12 and May 6, 2024, focusing on sustainability among SMEs in Romania, when asked what is the biggest impediment to the adoption of sustainability practices, respondents talked about their financial resources in 48% of cases, time in 27% of cases and knowledge in 18% of cases (Academia de Sustenabilitate, 2024, para 10-12)

As a result, according to Romanian companies, the financial aspects are the first hurdle to be passed whenever implementing environmental and sustainability solutions.

The examples of opt-outs and changes in the way service providers and consumers interact with each other are countless. For example, large retail stores have begun to replace checkout counters with machines where customers scan, bag and pay for products themselves, under the supervision of the store staff. This type of shopper supervision also represents a symbolic break in the unspoken shopper-seller partnership and turns customers into occasional employees of department stores.

The emergence and expansion of the network of easybox dispensers (self-collection points for parcels ordered through various couriers) is nothing more than a form of rationalisation of logistical costs, which the large transport companies are reducing with the emergence of this type of system, even if the service can also be seen as an advantage for the customer who is not in a particular place at the time of delivery. The customer no longer receives the parcel at his home address but can pick it up anytime from an easybox dispenser of their own choice, and the courier company no longer has to return to deliver the parcel in person if it cannot find the addressee at home, which saves time and fuel and turns the customer into a character supporting the tasks of the couriers. Indeed, in corroboration of the afore-mentioned assertions, there is a message on the website of one of the courier companies operating in Romania that encourages users to visit the nearest parcel collection stations. The message states: “You have a FANbox nearby!” Pick up your shipment simply and quickly, whenever you want! Plus, you help the environment – CO₂ emissions are lower than standard delivery” (Fan Courier, 2024).

This type of emotional commercial message, adapted to the new realities and ecological trends which dominate communication in recent years, serves to demonstrate that the CSR actions of large companies are primarily focused on such messages and are designed to align with the evolving communicational norms, the new fashions imposed by civil society and new ideologies. In essence, these actions are driven by a commercial imperative, reflecting the interests of the 21^st-century society. It is in fact just a form of mimicry, a form of semiotics of the camouflage whereby the big players on the commercial markets try to appear to keep up with society’s wishes and interests, but in fact the public itself, transformed into a recycler, becomes the commodity itself. The consumer becomes a sort of employee, a new commodity within the reach of the big companies whereby they manage to substantially increase their profits.

New consumer experience

While still referring to the renunciations that the younger and, say, acculturated generations accept, acculturation is a phenomenon defined as the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture (Acculturation, n.d.). I will also mention the example that I picked up from a chat with a group of students. They told me about a music festival in Romania, recently held for the fourth time. Each year, the festival features very well-known international artists on its poster and online channels. However, despite their fame, these artists never actually got to perform at the festival. Moreover, the no-show was announced just a few minutes before the performance was due to start. The natural reaction of spectators should have been one of outrage and boycott. However, the new consumer, somehow depersonalized and educated to accept various disclaimers, has returned year after year to this festival, despite the unprofessional organisation and the lack of respect for the participants.

Remaining in the realm of consumption, it should be noted here that fast food restaurants emerged to be able to feed most people in a democratic way, and reduce the time needed to prepare food in a traditional way. It is obvious that the main attraction of fast-food products was their low price. It is clear that the gap between a menu ordered in a well-known fast-food restaurant and a menu ordered in an à la carte restaurant has narrowed substantially. The two types of products are now very close in terms of price. This example simply follows the logic of the string of examples that show the benefits and profound meaning of consuming this product are no longer found in the consumer’s initial motivations. Jean Baudrillard asserted that consumption is defined as “the exclusivity of pleasure” (Baudrillard, 2008, p. 99). This concept becomes pointless. This forces us to wonder whether this new form of consumption represents a fundamental transformation of the future forms of consumption proposed to humanity, in which the concepts of hedonism and pleasure will be annulled. At this point, consumption will become mechanical and repetitive, a form imposed on individuals from outside.

Alternatives

In this globalized context, one can focus his attention on an article spotlighting Keiran Whitaker, who launched a cockroach farm called Entocycle. According to that article, the insect protein market will reach $8 billion by 2030; the article also explains what was the underlying reason that determined the entrepreneur to open such a business. The motivation was based on the irrefutable evidence that sustainability campaigns have generated environmental effects by replacing sunflower oil with palm oil or meat with various soy derivatives. Keiran Whitaker was unequivocal in stating that all these things affect the natural ecosystem and that only insects can achieve a form of complete greening of the organic waste that humanity generates (Farquharson, para. 28).

The near future will see us discussing the feeding of humanity with pseudo-foods derived from insect proteins. This will inevitably lead to a drop in the level of satisfaction that customers will experience with regard to getting their basic foodstuffs. These examples and arguments prove that we are currently experiencing the early stages of a global crisis that will affect the Romanian society soon. The future will see the types of food currently referred to as gourmet featured in museums. The hedonistic meaning of the ritual of eating, which has been a significant aspect of past and present cultures, is set to decline. This may result in meals on holidays being replaced by the consumption of protein bars.

In today’s world, synthetics have largely replaced natural products. This shift has created a metaphorical contrast between the two, with synthetics often perceived as negative and natural products as positive. This contrast can be seen as a confrontation between good and evil. In the current era, consumers have come to rely on containers made from synthetic materials, as well as on clothing and accessories produced by major manufacturers. In order to live in a world of the natural, i.e. the ideal good, we should embrace a paradigm shift in which the main stakeholders in sustainability would be the very people who are today manufacturing synthetic products. It is worth remembering what Valentina Marinescu said: “we live in a world of plastics, which we find in everything from hospital bed linen to footwear, bags and all kinds of knitwear that have largely replaced natural fibres such as cotton, wool and silk, which have been used for thousands of years”. (Marinescu, 2024, p. 17) This is yet another example of how, despite living in a seemingly modern, developed and technologized world, we are actually worse off and dependent on certain economic entities which change our way of life according to their own interests.

The article Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, Not Places, by Kris de Decker, offers an interesting and fresh take on how humans have kept warm since the Middle Ages. Our ancestors used natural materials and clever tech to stay cozy. They also designed ergonomic furniture, and divided their living quarters in compartments with various levels of thermal insulation, which shows us that human beings have lived without air conditioning or floor heating for millennia. Modern solutions are more efficient, but also energy-intensive and less eco-friendly (De Decker, 2015, para. 1-45).

So, it is clear that natural materials can provide us with decent living solutions. If they combine with research using current tech and identifying modern materials or components derived from natural ones, there could result a winning combination of technology and nature-based solutions. That would get rid of all the fancy stuff, like air conditioning, heat pumps, complex but expensive underfloor heating systems, gas-fired heating plants, which have their limits and are a barrier to an ecological lifestyle.

Conclusions

By following the observable transformations in the way individuals in Romanian society change their consumption dynamics and, implicitly, the level of involvement in activities that can be included in the universe of sustainability, it was possible to critically observe the current and possible future dynamics of the types of consumption that our society engages in and will continue to engage in, and how consumers position themselves in relation to certain CSR type campaigns which are influenced by current fashion trends in this field. Moreover, by observing the dynamics of consumption, this material also managed to identify several of the marketing and promotion directions that big companies adopt, in line with current social movements and environmentalist trends.

The new consumer realities presented in this article, camouflaged in modern campaigns on sustainability, environmental sustainability, and empowering individuals to save the planet, can be seen as a parallel to the example given by author Gilles Lipovetsky in his book, The Third Woman. Lipovetsky wrote one whole chapter entitled The Explosion of Beauty to show how, through decades of sustained marketing and PR campaigns, the female public was persuaded and influenced to appreciate beauty exclusively, and encouraged to adopt universally accepted aesthetic values that emphasise the perfection of the body, that sometimes must be anorexic. Following the introduction of these campaigns, the new generation of women were exposed to a plethora of weight management techniques, began to utilise creams that promised eternal youth, became proficient in contemporary makeup techniques, and adapted to the new paradigm that asserted “a woman’s primary responsibility is to be attractive” (Lipovetsky, 2000, p.99-120).

In this context of the ideologized beauty, which has become a significant social and normative pressure in the absence of which individuals cannot perform socially and cannot integrate, the McGill Journal of Law and Health examines how, currently, some doctors are prescribing a drug for diabetics, called Ozempic (which has also generated considerable controversy in the Romanian society), for weight loss purposes, despite its well-documented harmful effects, which have even led to serious intestinal tract disorders. (Paul, Tesic, Leng, 2024, para. 1-12) This is obviously yet another illustration of the medical sector being influenced by the fashion industry and the associated ideals (such as the stereotypical body image or the societal pressure to conform to a certain weight) that have shaped the decisions of medical professionals and consumers alike, who are seeking rapid and effortless results, within a short span of time.

The plethora of miraculous solutions purporting to rejuvenate, slim, transform and prolong life are nothing but fetishes. They represent a replacement of the values associated with youth, physique, and immortality with their substitutes. In this sense, authors such as Thomas Sebeok talk about assigning miraculous powers to some commodities (Sebeok, 2002)

Just like it happens with all this new ideology about the obligations of the modern woman, analysed by Gilles Lipovetsky (2000) that serves as a disguise for a number of marketing techniques which have aimed at turning the modern woman into a major consumer of cosmetics, beauty products, fitness services, weight loss supplements, cosmetic surgery etc., well, in the same way, it can be said that today’s most CSR campaigns, which apparently protect the environment and nature, are nothing more than a strategic form of cost optimisation used by global production corporations which, by involving consumers and turning them into servants of their own interests, make big savings in their own budgets.

The article Cambio di paradigma nella moda: sostenabilita, innovazione e gestione della filiera, written by Marco Richetti and Karan Khurana, outlines the shift in the fashion industry thinking and the move away from the traditional, environmentally damaging production techniques towards more sustainable approaches. The article proposes five pivotal steps to take when implementing the sustainable work systems, including a sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), monitoring work processes, a holistic approach, verification of key suppliers, integration of SSCM into the core business structure, and the implementation of transparency in corporate practices (Richetti, Khurana, 2022, p. 181-182).

A quick reading of the main elements proposed in Richetti and Khurana’s study shows that all the elements they review there are intrinsically linked to the business structure of a commercial activity, and therefore of a company, and nowhere do we find elements that involve the final consumer. This type of solution, which can be adapted to the industrial food chain, shows that if the final consumers are involved and empowered, their role and symbolic meaning could be changed indeed, but that will not have a decisive and real influence on sustainability as long as companies themselves are not capable of implementing and applying sustainable elements that protect consumers and the environment at the same time.

It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that the current society, the way we interact, the globalisation, the way in which we produce things, have reached their limits, and, if we don’t change some of the things we do, we’ll face other global crises in the coming years; some may refer to the way in which fashion works (if that’s possible), since it has invaded so many areas of our lives. Of course, if after decades of exposure to advertising with dominant hegemonic messages, consumers are still willing to give up stereotypical consumption, which we could say they have inherited not only through their DNA but also culturally through exposure to all media messages, then there is a possibility that in the future we will witness structural modifications of consumption.

Patrizia Calefato states that: “ethical, environmental and solidarity values are therefore essential today to creating a notion of luxury that is in tune with the times” (Calefato, 2023, p. 143).

This approach and structural change in the connotation of luxury is a direct challenge to traditional values. It transforms the concept of luxury into a volatile notion that forces the consumer to give up what they previously held to be true. The fundamental meaning of luxury is, as it is specified in 2017, the consumer’s orientation towards quality materials, natural essences, and traditional manufacturing methods (Marinescu, Podaru, 2017, p. 66-71).

Consequently, it is important to make sure that any changes made to the structural elements that define luxury do not result in the annulment of its deeper meaning. Furthermore, such changes could also lead to the amputation of the hedonistic meaning of luxury and the consumer’s experience, and ultimately result in the censorship of the qualitative and aesthetic pleasure that an elite consumer could have.

One can wonder whether these renunciations are heralding an extinction of the age of hyper-consumption. The answer is that, in fact, consumption is on the rise. People are consuming at any time and with any consequences, including the limitation of some rights, of some products in a way that was unimaginable a few decades ago. In fact, society and individuals are demonstrating that the era of hyper-consumption is accelerating and entering a new phase. In this phase, customers can be persuaded to accept and consume products even against their own interests or the very paradigmatic basis of this type of consumerist expansion, namely their own ultimate satisfaction.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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