Great creative writers invent stories about thrift-store objects -- and you can buy them on eBay. A project in collaboration with Joshua Glenn.
Unconsumption blog and Wiki in progress.
Things That Look Like Other Things.
Counterfunctionality (A Gallery).
MLK BLVD: Open-source photography project: Contribute to the Flickr pool; browse the blog.
--> The Metapoll. Take it.
"Where Were You?" Annual.Design For Dreaming
[ --> Details on Sponsored-Film Virtual Festival are here.]
Design For Dreaming is the final entry in this virtual festival — and probably the best-known one. It’s even been mentioned on BoingBoing.
In part I assume this is because the film is — on one level — perfectly ridiculous, featuring a sort of Audrey Hepburn [...]
The Home Economics Story, Parts One and Two
“What is home economics?” this film from 1951 asks. The answer that is given: It’s partly about mastering “the equipment in a home.” It’s about physics being taught in a way “girls” would like: using kitchen appliances; indeed iIt’s about digging the fact that “Cooking is practically [...]
[ --> Details on Sponsored-Film Virtual Festival are here.]
This 19-minute film, “Why Braceros?,” was produced in around 1959 on behalf of the Council of California Growers. It aims to tell viewers about “the benefits of the bracero program,” The Field Guide to Sponsored Films explains, “originally initiated by the United States in 1942 [...]
[ --> Details on Sponsored-Film Virtual Festival are here.]
“America is busy now!” this curious film, “The Machine: Master Or Slave?“, begins.
What seems at first like exciting propaganda about the “mighty crescendo of production” revolutionizing the World War II-era United States turns out to be something a little more complicated. What will happen, the [...]
A Coach For Cinderella
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This nine-minute film from 1937 was made on behalf of the Chevrolet Motor Company, by well-known industrial film company the Jam Handy Organization.
A pretty nicely executed piece of Technicolor animation, the film tells – as the title suggests – the familiar [...]
To Market, To Market.
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For reasons that aren’t clear to me, part one is in black and white, part two is in color.
“Like the waters of a mighty ocean, people also represent a mighty force,” announces the narrator of “To Market, To Market,” a 1942 [...]
[ --> Details on Sponsored-Film Virtual Festival are here.]
It’s pretty obvious that I’d be interested in a film called “Things People Want.” That’s kind of my beat.
In this case, this 20-minute, 1948 film, produced by the Jam Handy Organization for Chevrolet, tells us a story about two kinds of people: those who want [...]
Some time ago now, Rick Prelinger sent me a book he’s put together, The Field Guide to Sponsored Films. (For quick refresher on Mr. Prelinger and his work, see this earlier post.) The book is intended for scholars, and available from the National Film Preservation Foundation. (Click here, then on “cooperative projects,” then [...]
Column appears in The New York Times Magazine. Archive here. NOTE: Consumed is on hiatus until late March. (Illo: Kate Bingaman-Burt)
The Consumed Facebook Page. [NOTE: The Facebook page is still updated & active during the hiatus.] 
Letters From New Orleans, by Rob Walker.
Introduction to Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture
Essay for OBEY: Supply & Demand - The Art of Shepard Fairey - 20th Anniversary Edition
Consumed column about Obama as muse is included in Obama: The Historic Journey.
A piece I wrote way back when for Slate is included in Sponsorship: The Fine Art Of Corporate Sponsorship/the Corporate Sponsorship Of Fine Art
Gary Hustwit's industrial design documentary Objectified.
Anne Elizabeth Moore's book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity.
Kaya Oakes' book, Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture
Elizabeth Currid's book, The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City
Kim Fellner's book Wrestling with Starbucks: Conscience, Capital, Cappuccino
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