Want to know what you can do to tackle the issues brought up in the film (before you read below of course)? Here is a way you can take political action by getting your local MP to sign the ‘Repair and Reuse Declaration’. Take a second to fill it in now and know that you used your clicks to make a change.

Buy Now! The Netflix documentary, released in November 2024 in time with Black Friday, tackles head on an issue which faces almost everyone – consumption. Or more specifically – over consumption. It cleverly weaves a spectacular and brutal story that guides audiences through the marketing lies and techniques that we are all subliminally subjected to, revealing the hidden disastrous impacts that our shopping habits are having on communities and environments around the world.

Gorgeous, enticing, shocking and mildly intimidating. It gets your emotions going. At least it did for the amazing film club audience that came to see the documentary. But I am not here to pull apart or echo critique that can be found elsewhere on the internet. I am here to talk about feelings, thoughts and reactions. And not my own, but from the film club’s amazing open audience members.

So I have to thank the filmmakers! The documentary started many difficult and honest discussions. By opening our eyes it has vividly made clear the need to spread the word. So hear I am!

Now go watch the film! And share it widely! But first, maybe continue reading.

Emotions

Created using the marketing techniques that brands use to lure us in, it is an aesthetically glorious and overstimulating film. Colours, sound effects, overpowering narrative given by an AI-like being who knows all, the film is absorbing! And these techniques that get you to click the “Buy Now!” button are obviously rather successful at getting your emotions going!

We felt everything. The audience commented on how some felt disgust, rage and overwhelm on learning the truths the film uncovers. There was anger and blame targeted at the ‘invisible powers that be’, that seemingly have no morals in deceiving the masses into distracted states of constant want. ‘Fault’ was accusingly used to target the lack of responsibility these people in positions of power expressed in their decisions. You get it, they seem evil.

The overwhelm for some was laced with all-consuming guilt from our own consumptive actions, as we assessed our mistakes and struggled to find alternative ways to live without causing the harm depicted on screen. This level of guilt when tinged with shame can lead to a sense of powerlessness. A need to escape the system. Perhaps we should all go and live in a self-sustaining hut in the middle of nowhere? Exciting yes, but what does leaving the system achieve, if we already live in a world where 2.5 million shoes are produced every hour and 15 million unwanted clothes are sent to Ghana each week?

What was interesting was watching the teetering balance of all of our emotions in the discussion, watching as people swayed between guilt over their own individual actions (I was definitely stressing about the waste plastics that obviously are not getting recycled) into outrage. And somewhere there was a spark of hope, of the speed of change that is possible and the creative opportunities that we can engage in now that we are aware.

Hard truths and lessons

The film is full of them! Hard truths and lessons that is. And I am not going to summarise them for you here. Go watch it… And yes, I know I am encouraging consumerism. This was one of the things our audience picked up on. Isn’t it ironic that the film is streamed on Netflix, a platform that is not accessible to everyone and is producing ever-more entertaining content tailored to appeal to audiences and entice them into binging and watching more.

Just like the fact that not everyone in the world is able to watch Netflix, the audience spoke of how not everyone has the agency and ability to act up against the system. The people who work in the factories depicted on screen are in very different places to those who were interviewed on screen. Though there was great appreciation for the whistle blowers who are making change, it was acknowledged that they are in places of privilege. Those in the room who had worked for some of the companies depicted on screen shared that they experienced similar wasteful scenarios. What was clear was the level of injustice that the film clearly visualised and the need for a much wider systems change.

Audiences discussed how there wasn’t much information that was new in the film. Much of it they already knew or where vaguely aware of. (Apart from the light bulb story, that was appalling.) Somehow seeing these issues in this film made us feel differently about these issues. Yes, that does encourage guilt for not having considered these issues before, or potentially done anything about them. But, it does talk to the persuasive power of the storytelling techniques used in the film. By playing with our emotions it riled many of us up and the outrage powered our conversations of disgust. It led to our questioning of what we can do next.

What can we do next?

There is hope! At least we did find our own sources of hope in the room as we reflected on the influence and agency we all had. There are many options out there of things we can do to engage in this problem. But the audience observed that the film hints at at a few of these options at the end of the film but provides very little information about what we can actually actively do next. What action should we take? How do I learn to fix my stuff? Which brands do we trust? There were no resources suggested or invitations to take that next step at the end of the film. There is nothing to capture our will to act at the point when we are most anxious, outraged… or guilty.

So here is what we settled on:

1. Spread the word!
2. Change our behaviours: buy less and learn to fix more.
3. Challenge the system. Can we lobby the powers that be?

The first is easy and harmless, but tough nonetheless. We need to start talking! Everyone in the room had such different backgrounds and networks. Though they all decided to come to the screening of their own backs, so must have had pre-existing interests, not everyone in our lives does. So there was encouragement to continue our film club discussions with our friends and families to spread the word.

A big message that came from the film was about greenwash and the brands pushing the responsibility of the need to change onto the consumer. Making it our problem, our responsibility. Here is where some of us felt a push back towards where our guilt came from. As these woven lies encourage us to feel it. But we are not victims nor are we powerless. We can change our shopping habits and we can reduce our waste. And these are really empowering to do. With our limited energy and attention, unless this is just me, we have to be understanding of the fact that we do exist within a much wider system and our behaviour changes may only reduce the impact by so much. So we need to share our attention and efforts between personal change and systems change.

Challenge the big fish! This is not as easy to do as changing to a reusable water bottle I admit. It is not as clear and obvious as the “buy now with one click button”, therefore not quite as convenient. But to have a larger impact, it is necessary. Putting some time into a google search to find local community groups and initiatives that already exist that we can engage with is a place to start. There are policies and politics that we too can campaign around about tax and imports that we can rally against. As one of the audience members stated, if we want our political systems to represent us we have to engage with them. Whether that’s working with them or pushing against, these systems shape the world we live in. So its our responsibility to shape them.

Finally. We can do all these things to change, and we must change, but it was pointed out that we also need to practice self awareness and care in whatever we decide to do. These stories that appeal so strongly, persuade so easily and distract us from what we think is right and what we care about, they run deep. We need to be aware that the need to buy new things is often linked to deeper personal issues, like a fear of the judgment of others. Or the willingness for distraction and escape which may be caused by an uncertainty of change and risk of losing the comforts that ignorance grants. There is an underlying need to challenge ourselves while we challenge the system. To do that sustainably and to play the long game, care must come first.

Thank you everyone who came and contributed to the film club. And to everyone at the MAKERS Project who made it all possible. Please do one thing today and sign email your MP about this declaration to contribute to a political systems change. I challenge you, after signing that form, what else can you do to help tackle over consumption?