Adam Menter’s Blog

…little self-indulgent rant coming up…

I was sickened by an article in this morning’s NYTimes about how Frito Lay is trying to target their products to women: Frito-Lay tries to Enter the Minds (and Lunch Bags) of Women. It is basically about a big new campaign that Frito Lay is launching to get more women to buy their junk food:

Women are snacking more than men, but are not eating as many Frito-Lay snacks…“So if it’s, you’re snacking two times as much, but you’re not snacking with us, why, and what can we do for you?” …men’s growth in salty snacks is far outpacing women’s.

They’re pretty worried about the women they studied feeling guilty (as expressed in a logbook study):

According to their logs, the women felt guilty about quite a lot, whether it was snacking, not seeing their children enough, or not spending enough time with their husbands…”So the question for us was, how do we not trip her guilt?”

And their answer to this is:

Toning down the packaging and showing off healthy ingredients in the snacks…Baked Lay’s will no longer be in a shiny yellow bag, but in a matte beige bag that displays pictures of the ingredients like spices or ranch dressing.

Pretty much NO thought given to the products themselves. When are we going to step up, stop putting up with this crap, and get better than this? Imagine how many millions of dollars were spent on this campaign. Imagine how many (wo?)man hours were wasted on this…and imagine how sad it is that the people who were working on this probably genuinely wanted to be helping people.

The problem is that Frito Lay has millions to spend to pay people to do this less-than-meaningful work. While some of the only people trying to address the root of these womens’ guilt (by encouraging and emboldening them to actually spend time with their children and families, for example) - are working for some non-profit for peanuts.

…and one more thing…

They’re also back-handing women with the good ‘ole “hate your body” routine:

In one of the webisodes, two of the women stand with a swimsuit saleswoman, who is reviewing a chart of what bikini works on women with different body types — a trope familiar to readers of women’s magazine summer issues.

“Where’s the one that takes a middle-aged mom with some unwanted bulges and a chest that’s seen perkier days and makes her look like Cindy Crawford?” a character asks.

(check out http://www.awomansworld.com/ and watch the video on the NYTimes site if you can stomach it)

I thought we were heading in the right direction with campaigns like Dove’s Beauty campaign. I guess not.

…okay, I’m done now…

I just fixed my computer.

As in: I just took the whole freakin’ thing apart, replaced a component, and put it back together again.

The reason I was able to do this is that the guys over at iFixIt.com make this kind of repair accessible for someone like me. I called up the company, told a nice fellow named Gabe what my problem was, got advice on what might be wrong (busted DC-in board), and placed an order for a recycled replacement part. Then - when the part came - I went to their website and followed the step-by-step instructions for replacing the part.

I’ll have to say, it did take a while (Apple wasn’t really designing for disassembly and repair) - but it was straightforward and accessible. Yes, you can do it too…try it if you have a broken computer or iPod.

I love iFixIt’s business for several reasons:

• They’re helping to shift the mentality of consumers towards caring for the products that they love instead of just disposing of them and getting a new one.
• Perhaps more on this in a future blog post: Our consumption model isn’t bad because we love our stuff too much, but because we don’t love it enough.
• They’re re-using perfectly good parts from discarded computers - helping to close the loop on our industrial cycle. And they’ll buy and salvage your old computer.
• They have knowledgeable, accessible people who want to help you.
• They empower and equip me to take matters in my own hands. There is no way that an Apple store or other electronics store would have tried to repair my computer. It wouldn’t have been worth it. It’d have been “time for a new one.” Why?

I’m currently reading The Fountainhead and I’ve recently passed the LEED exam, so I’m pretty interested in architecture and green building at the moment. This website from the American Institute of Architect’s COTE top-ten from 2008 is fantastic: http://www.aiatopten.org/hpb/grid2008.cfm. It shows ten green design projects and allows you to compare them across different measures like community, water, and energy.