H&M "Rewear It" Campaign – World Recycle Week

There was a recent ad campaign launched by high street retailer H&M (I say recent, it actual ran back in April so I guess I’m a little late to the party), and this snippet/teaser in particular really caught my attention:

It ran during World Recycle Week to encourage shoppers to donate unwanted clothes. In return, they were rewarded with a voucher to use on goods in-store.

The ad itself is dope: everything from the visuals to the beat, lyrics, choreography and timing is cool and cutting edge and it really grabs your attention. There’s so many layers to the visuals, for example the circular movements in the choreography to reflect the cyclical nature and lifespan of reusable goods.

However, many viewers of the ad were quick to point out the hypocrisy of the campaign, namely the way H&M is a clothing outlet that is the epitome of fast-fashion; the clothing items produced aren’t made to last or have a long shelf life, and consumers are constantly encouraged to keep up with the latest fashion trends. One could argue that H&M is therefore contributing to the waste issue on a very large scale. It definitely does seem like a bit of an oversight from a PR/Marketing standpoint.

It makes you question why exactly H&M would run such a campaign that would leave them open to all sorts of obvious criticism?

Obnoxious People: Speak Up Or Let It Slide?

Over the past couple of years after dealing with some major downers, I decided I wasn’t even going to bother confront people about their sh*t behaviour anymore, because it proved to be a pointless exercise. All it ever really did was just create more drama.

Realistically, people in general are never going to react well when you’re pointing out their flaws. So why bother? You just end up looking argumentative or like a nitpicking a**hole, and most of the time you end up dealing with someone who is defensive, in denial or is so offended that you called them out on their behaviour, they’re going to fall out with you and never speak to you again anyway.

Image credit: mattysimpson

So from then on, whenever someone was bugging me, whether that was a friend or someone I’m dating, if an issue arose and the subsequent conversation was going nowhere, I would simply distance myself from them and the situation. Far better to walk away without all the drama.

It wasn’t a difficult thing to implement because I’ve generally been keeping people at arm’s length these days anyway, preferring to keep things casual.

'My apartment is the only place that I feel safe right now. I have food. I have alcohol. I have 600 channels. And none of them want to hurt me.'  (The Mindy Project)

Recently however, things took a different turn.

Why A Beach Holiday Is Good For You

I came back from a holiday recently, my first overseas break in three years and I think because I hadn’t holidayed in a while I definitely appreciated the getaway a lot more.

A snap from my recent holiday 

Not that there’s anything wrong with going abroad multiple times a year. In fact, I used to be that type of person, a frequent flyer and I even went travelling around Southeast Asia. I had this thirst to see the world and I was fascinated to see how other people lived in different parts of the world.

But then all of a sudden, my interest in travelling dwindled. Perhaps it was the shock of realising just how much money I had spent on holidays, which is money that could have been put to more practical use.

Or perhaps it was the difficulty in getting people to commit to a holiday. Add to that, it seems everyone gets on each other’s nerves on holiday – no matter how close you are, being cooped up with someone 24/7 is bound to lead to some issues. So maybe this is what put me off.