Sunday, July 6, 2008

Corporate Conglomerate

This is in response to Chandelle's post about corporate food. Now, I don't know nearly as much as she does about the food world, but tonight, as I was skimming through the Sunday paper, I found a rather hefty flyer called P&G brandSAVER. Now, obviously, if Proctor and Gamble is putting all their brands into one flyer to advertise, then it's not overly concerned about folks knowing they practically own the household market, but still, I was surprised by how many of the products I use on a daily basis (and indeed, how many products I thought were competing products), were made under Proctor and Gamble's label. Also, here are a couple of links about their legislative pull. Just makes you all warm and fuzzy, huh? Note especially the part where they mention that approximately 80 percent of the rest of the globe hasn't so much as seen a disposable diaper and I wanted to hurl (but for full disclosure, I haven't made the switch to cloth yet). Anyway, here's a list of all the products they make (even though one of those links also outlines it):
Pantene, Aussie, infusium, Olay, Noxema, Covergirl, Herbal Essences, Clairol, Secret, TAG, Gillette, Always, Tampax, Old Spice, Venus, Crest, OralB, PUR, febreze, Swiffer, Dawn, Cascade, Iams, Charmin, Bounty, Pepto Bismol, Tide, Downy, Head & Shoulders, Metamucil, Prilosec, and Pampers. This may not be all inclusive, but it was overwhelming nonetheless. It certainly opened my eyes. Illusion of choice indeed. Thanks for raising awareness, sista!

8 comments:

JohnR said...

I get really depressed by this sometimes, especially as I watch my favorite socially-conscious, environmentally-friendly companies getting picked up, one by one, by these mega-conglomerates. We're suddenly just another niche, a target audience with special marketing needs.

What further complicates things is that I feel like I have to play the game and be a good member of this consumer niche, or even the semi-decent choices will go away.

She said...

I read today in Adbusters that there are now these giant investment companies that buy up other companies and then sell them for profit. They said that 1 in 4 Americans works one of these companies directly or indirectly. That is insane.

mfranti said...

johnr

..play along or else...comes to mind.

lessie,i'm at a loss for words. i'm one of those people who hates to consume corporate crap but does it anyways...because it's cheap and easy and i'm lazy.

Lessie said...

Hey guys, thanks for stopping by. JohnR, I worry about the mega corporations gobbling up smaller ones as well. I was just reading in TIME today that Anheuser-Busch is facing a buy out. Not that they're small, but they aren't one of the bigger umbrella corps either. I worry about even smaller businesses who have less protection against these companies.

Stephanie! Welcome. Have I met you in other places around the bloggernacle? Anyway, yeah, I work for a newspaper here in town and I wouldn't be surprised if I am or end up working for one of the big conglomerates. They've frozen wages at our paper because it's struggling so badly (the publisher can still live in an eight hundred dollar house, but that's another post all together).

Mr. Pink's Mom, I do the same thing. I want to by more responsibly, but holy cow, we're so strapped right now that it's hard to justify the spendier, more socially conscious products. And what really irritates me is that the corporations have orchestrated that problem to begin with in order to increase their bottom line.

tranquility said...

i hate washables. lol. but do use them on and off. if you can get an eco friendlier alternative disposable, ( ie: moltex oko), at a co op it works out not so bad.

every bit we do *does* make a difference, so it's committing to what you *can* do and staying positive imo.

Lessie said...

I didn't know they made eco friendly disposable diapers. I'll have to look into that. I think there must be a corporate conspiracy to downplay things like that in the U.S. :-). Very cool. But a little spendy. I'll have to think about that.

She said...

I occasionally comment on FMH as SAP. I used to comment as Stephanie, but then there was someone else commenting under that name...

If the paper you work for is not owned by a conglomerate yet, that is quite remarkable. Media ownership concentration is so high. But if it's struggling, then it may be on it's way to joining the collective.

The company I work for is not part of any conglomerate, but I am positive that a ton of our clients are. I feel pretty dirty doing work for big oil companies.

Amander said...

I found your blog, it's great. Thanks for letting me read.