Materialism Link to Depression And Anger - Study

LONDON (Reuters) - Designer labels and fast cars may be the dream of millions, but craving material possessions can cause depression and anger, research released on Tuesday showed.

Australian academics found a positive correlation between materialism -- or an "excessive concern" for material things -- and negative psychological phenomena.

Shaun Saunders, one of the authors of the report from the University of Newcastle, Australia, said it came as no surprise to discover that money can't buy you love.

But there has been very little scientific evidence to support the truism.

"While there is growing concern over the environmental effects of materialism and global consumerism, little attention has been paid to its psychological effects," he told Reuters.

Saunders explained that one source of depression among dedicated consumers was the fact that the property they acquired tended to lose value quickly.

"If your self-worth is invested in what you own, as can be the case in our market-driven society, then these things may not hold their value for very long," he said.

Wanting a sports car would not necessarily cause psychological problems, however, because some enthusiasts could take a genuine interest in the performance of the vehicle and how it is made.

But in most cases materialism is based on people using possessions to define their place in society. This applies both to the "haves" and the "have-nots," Saunders said.

"People want to compare themselves to others. In our society the criterion tends to be what you own.

"This is the 'Keeping up with the Jones's' idea. It can be a very frustrating experience trying to stay ahead of others, which can be a precursor to anger expression."

It also leads to conformity, based on the notion that the self in a market-based society is treated as a commodity whose value is determined externally.

So before heading off on a shopping spree to lift the gloom, retail therapists should take note:

"This may give a person a sense of control through owning something, but the research shows that materialism is negatively correlated with life satisfaction," Saunders said.

Mirror wepages of this article and articles that refer to this study:
• University of Newcastle: Money Cant Buy You Love
• Study Finds Craving Material Things Such as Designer Clothes Causes Anger and Depression, you can add comments on this page
• Wealth's impact on mental health
• Materialism Link to Depression And Anger - Study
• Materialism Link to Depression And Anger - Study
• Materialism Link to Depression And Anger - Study
• Materialism Link to Depression And Anger
• The ups, downs and anger of materialism
• Dr Shaun Saunders
• Consumerism And Mental Health - The Hidden Price Of 'Keeping Up With The Jones'
• The Hidden Price Of 'Keeping Up With The Jones'
• The Construction and Validation of a Consumer Orientation Questionnaire (SCOI) Designed to Measure Fromm's (1955) 'Marketing Character' in Australia
• Mastering materialism a Hindu interpretation
• IN THE LIGHT OF THEOSOPHY "... leads to conformity, based on the notion that the self in a market-based society is treated as a commodity whose value is determined externally ..."
• RUNNING HEAD: Food and materialism

What's Your Price Tag?

The last few decades have been good to us. We live now the lucky half in an era of '50s prosperity, enjoying the fruits of an establishment we once felt so anti about.

Impassioned café defenses of Hanoi Jane and dorm-room, flower-power reveries have given way to Pellegrino, home equity and pass-me down Tony Robbins tapes. There is, however, an angst accompanying all this abundance; a question nibbling away at our self-satisfaction: Have I sold out?

It's never been an easy question, because selling out has never been an easy notion to define. Arbiters of all things cool young hipsters, et al have used selling out through the ages as a way to distinguish between the jazzy cats keeping it real and the bourgeois stiffs keeping it rich.

But even that distinction has become unclear. Selling out is hard to pin down in a culture where a stockbroker can be found wearing hemp chinos and volunteering for United Way while Sting uses his Tantric powers to hawk Jaguars.

That new social reality, says writer David Brooks, is proof of a generation that has sought to reap the pleasures of affluence while attempting to avoid the soul-withering that such seeking can entail.

It's a new class of people Brooks calls bobos Bourgeois Bohemians who "seemed to have combined the countercultural '60s and the achieving '80s into one social ethos."

In his new book, Bobos in Paradise, he describes them thus: "This is an elite that has been raised to oppose elites. They are affluent yet opposed to materialism. They may spend their lives selling yet worry about selling out. They are by instinct anti-establishmentarian yet somehow sense they have become a new establishment." Bohemians smoke dope; the bourgeois abstain; bobos take Prozac.

With our gas-guzzling SUVs adorned with Sierra Club (news - web sites) stickers, we've become masters of a have-it-all ingenuity. But aren't we still shaking hands with the devil even if s/he does listen to NPR?

Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, believes it's not a black-and-white issue. "There are not many moments in our lives where we realize the devil knocking at the door offering us a price tag," Thompson explains. "And we find out that the things we didn't sell out for at youth aren't as pure as we thought and the things we've bought into aren't as corrupt."

Such a view makes a compelling case for life as a series of imperfect choices. The trappings of mainstream consumer culture are, according to this take, the trappings of adulthood. Selling out is not so much a decision as an American rite of passage.

But there are parts of our idealistic youth worth embracing and aspects of our pragmatic maturity deserving of rejection. When we pretend that shopping at the Body Shop places us beyond reproach, that's not growing up; that's what Holden Caulfield called phony.

If there is such a thing as our better selves, don't we have a responsibility to it? Ultimately, professor Thompson concludes, the answer to whether you've sold out or not will come from within, on "one of those dark nights when you can't sleep at the age of 45 reviewing your life and you're confronted with the question: do you, in what you do, feel like you are doing the right thing?"

'Tis the Season of Receiving

SUNDAY, Dec. 16 (HealthScoutNews) -- Your son starts his Christmas list in July. You dread taking your daughter to the mall because of the non-stop nagging for gifts. And products sold on infomercials keep arriving on your doorstep.

You may have materialistic children.

New research has found such children expect more presents from their parents at Christmas, exert more influence on what their parents buy, are more likely to buy something they saw on TV, and are less likely to have a savings account.

And parents who scored the highest on the materialism scale had the most materialistic children.

"The bottom line is when the parent looks at the child, the parent has to look in the mirror," says Marvin Goldberg, lead author of the study and a professor of marketing at Penn State University. "You shape their values more than anyone."

Goldberg and his colleagues developed a test called the Youth Materialism Scale to determine children's materialism relative to their peers. The questionnaire was given to 540 parents and 996 children between the ages of 9 and 14.

The researchers focused on children in this age group, called tweens, because they are increasingly being targeted by advertisers. The 27 million tweens in the United States directly or indirectly influence $170 billion in sales, according to the study.

"Marketers have reached down to a still younger age and are now marketing products to tweens that were previously limited to teen-agers," Goldberg says. "Why is this so significant? One way or another, it serves to rob children of their childhood."

The children in the study were asked whether they "disagree a lot," "disagree a little," "agree a little" or "agree a lot" with a series of statements.

The statements included: "I have fun just thinking of all the things I own." "I'd rather spend time buying things than doing almost anything else." "The only kind of job I want when I grow up is one that gets me a lot of money."

The study found that the most materialistic kids -- those whose scored in the upper quartile -- were more interested in TV commercials than the least materialistic children, those in the lowest quartile. About 68 percent of tweens in the upper quartile said they watched commercials most of the time, compared to 54 percent of those in the lowest quartile.

About 77 percent of the children who scored the highest on the materialism scale said they expected their parents to buy a product because they saw it on TV, compared to 50 percent of the least materialistic children.

About 22 percent of the most materialistic children said they had called a phone number shown on TV to buy a product, compared to 14 percent of the least materialistic kids.

And although only 45 percent of the most materialistic kids had a savings account, 59 percent of the least materialistic did.

Youths who scored high on the materialism scale also expected their parents to spend more on birthday and Christmas presents -- $182.01, compared to $115.61 for less materialistic children.

"I'm a professor from a business school; I start from the premise that advertising is a major function without which our standard of living could not be achieved," Goldberg says. "There are lots of products out there that make our lives simpler, easier, better and safer. But I've become quite concerned when this function runs away with itself and we don't do enough to protect children."

Goldberg says his study, which is to appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, was criticized at first for lumping pre-pubescent 9-year-olds with 14-year-olds. But the marketing of products tied to pop music sensations like Britney Spears and 'N Sync (news - web sites) is as much directed at the younger kids as the older ones, he says.

Stanley Goldstein, a child clinical psychologist in private practice in Middletown, N.Y., says the word "materialistic" is pejorative, and he has some doubts about Goldberg's conclusions.

In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with the desire to shop and acquire new goods, Goldstein says.

Children use products, like clothing, skateboards or music, to differentiate themselves from grown-ups; it's a normal part of growing up, he says.

But, he adds, "contrary to people's beliefs, kids are not easy to market to or to manipulate."

Problems occur when parents use gifts and other material goods as a substitute for love and attention, he says.

"You do not spoil a child by giving them everything they want," Goldstein says. "You can only spoil a child by giving them things in place of emotional support and attention. Then you harm them."

What To Do

If you've decided to change your materialistic ways, you might consider giving an "alternative" gift this holiday season.

Alternatives for Simple Living was started in 1973 as a protest against the commercialism of Christmas.

Fashion Giant Armani Says He's Sick of Luxury

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, creator of some of the world's most expensive clothes, says he is fed up with luxury.

"I'll tell you something. Luxury disgusts me," the designer was quoted as saying in Italian newspapers on Thursday after showing off his latest men's fashion collection which borrowed heavily from the working class look of miners and soldiers.

"I want to pay homage to the workers, to the dignity of the workers with their simplicity and straightforwardness," Armani told reporters backstage as he explained his latest outfits with their flat caps, military boots and donkey jackets.

He urged young fashion fans to put their craze for designer labels into perspective.

"I want young people to understand that today's world is false. They must understand that it is absurd to prostitute oneself or to steal just to get a designer bag because they think that without it they are nobody," he said.

Asked whether he might also be to blame for the obsession with luxury, Armani pointed to his cheaper clothing lines which include jeans that sell for about 100 euros ($88) a pair compared with his top-of-the-range suits that fetch around 5,000 euros.

"I have to say that for all the things I design, I put in love and care," he said. "I do not shut myself away in my workshop, like some others do, to cynically and presumptuously create luxury items."

Debra Goldman's Consumer Republic

by Debra Goldman, adweek.com

There's nothing like a business scandal to show Americans the error of their ways. For the last several years, we've obsessed about the rich, worshiped the corporate wheeler-dealers and worked overtime to accumulate the latest toys. Yes, we've been indulgent and self-involved. But we've learned our lesson. The Me Decade is over. It's time to reconnect with family, friends and community. Welcome to the We Decade.

Oh, did you think I was talking about today? No, I'm pointing out the consumer sentiments that prevailed at the beginning of the '90s. The We Decade was but one of the labels widely offered to predict how the '90s would turn out following Wall Street's bust in the late '80s.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the simple life. As the decade went on, it got more complicated. It got more individualistic. And it got much more expensive, as expectations inflated to match the billions that gushed forth from the bull market.

In other words, anyone who had relied on consumers' professed sea change in attitude at the end of the '80s to understand the coming decade would have missed the '90s entirely.

Indeed, the '90s so completely failed to live up to their initial ethos that now, in the '00s, we've got to try it all over again.

Just as the '80s had Drexel Burnham Lambert, Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky to expose the pitfalls of greed, today we've got the Enron debacle to illuminate everything that is wrong with the mores to which we so recently and enthusiastically ascribed. Once more consumers are having second thoughts about their dreams of IPO millions. Once more they yearn for a lifestyle that is more balanced and less materialistic. Yet again they are rejiggering their notion of the good life-and this time, damn it, they're going to get it right.

Well, maybe. It is possible that we've embarked on the We Decade for real this time. But it is also possible that, just as the economy revolves through boom and bust, the consumer psyche has cycles of its own. That every episode of irrational exuberance is inevitably followed by one of sober reassessment-which in turn is trumped by irrational exuberance at the first possible opportunity.

These cycles seem to be related to the state of the economy, with greed and individualism reigning when times are good and piety and community values holding sway when things are dicey. But economics alone do not explain them. Back in the '80s, the bloom was off the Beemer long before the country fell into recession. By the same token, Enron was still one of the most admired corporations in America when consumer research uncovered signs that Americans were buying more cashmere sweaters but enjoying such activities less. Is there such a thing as prosperity fatigue?

If such a thing exists, it is surely a baby boomer syndrome. It's almost as if boomers are driven to relive their coming-of-age drama over and over again. They seesaw between the lure of material comfort they consider a birthright and the conviction that they need something more "authentic" and "meaningful." For several decades now, boomers have struggled to reconcile materialism and meaning, and repeatedly failed, only to try again.

Of course, with every turn of the cycle, boomers are older, and the terms of the struggle shift accordingly. Thus, every period of material excess is excessive in its own way. The '80s had its poofy couture, cocaine and English country-house clutter, the '90s its Prada, day spas and midcentury modern. The excesses of the '00s, should the gods grant them, will surely have their own flavor. And every retrenchment, every return to more "spiritual values"-whatever that vague term means-has its own characteristics, too.

And so the circle goes. Which is fine by advertising people, who tend to like dramatic breaks in consumer consciousness. They like new decades and new paradigms. Such occasions make for clever coinages that look good in PowerPoint presentations and encourage a sense of urgency in clients who don't want their brands left behind. Yet in looking at research that shows consumers seeking more spiritual satisfaction from their material life, I see not a break but a continuity. These aspirations are still with us because, somehow or other, we fail to achieve them.

It's far too early to bet that we'll have any more luck achieving them now than we have in the past.

Mexico to Export Theme Park to U.S.
Mexico to Export Winning Theme Park for Children to the United States

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The City of Children, a theme park designed to teach a work ethic and create brand loyalty at the same tender age, could be coming soon to a shopping mall near you.

The successful Mexican attraction will begin construction in the United States soon, and malls in the New York and Los Angeles areas are competing to host to the first U.S. branch.
"This is genius," said James Ashton, president of AFC Commercial Real Estate, based in Westlake Village, Calif. He toured the attraction recently and is negotiating with the owners to build a similar park for a new mall in the Los Angeles area.

"People are so starved for something like this and there is nothing comparable. Everything is going kid-oriented and there is nothing that could compete with this."

But the concept that has been accepted so overwhelmingly here -- companies build brand-oriented attractions for children within a "city" provided by the developer -- could face more probing questions in the United States about its motives.

Mexican upper classes, to which the attraction caters, are lacking in cynicism about commercialism and materialism.

In the United States, where the planned entrance fee of about $20 would be accessible to many more families, people tend have a more pointed opinion that is the opposite of their Mexican peers.

"There are certainly some segments of the population who very much can't stand that kind of commercialism, but at the same time that's more and more in the mainstream of American society," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a Portland, Ore.-based anti-commercialism group.

"More and more, this is what American marketing is looking like. It seems like there's nothing they won't do to market to kids these days."

The idea of the park is simple: After buying their American Airlines "ticket" to enter, children receive play money, which they can spend on General Motors bumper cars (Avis rents them). Or, they can make themselves up at the Pond's Institute beauty salon or scale a rock wall emblazoned with the word "Nesquik."

If they run out of money, they can go to work -- applying Sherwin Williams paints to a wall at the Cemex construction site, caring for babies (dolls, actually) at the Johnson & Johnson hospital or reading bar codes at the Superama supermarket.

The 52 sponsors at the current site put up about half of the money for construction. What they get is hard-core advertising to impressionable children.

"Kids don't say, 'Let's go to the pizzeria.' They say, 'Let's go to Domino's.' Obviously when they want a pizza they're going to want Domino's," said Esteban Lopez Ancona, general director of Amazing Toys de Mexico, which runs the theme park.

The park itself is laid out in the form of a city, with a central kiosk, drainpipes where children can go on an "archaeological dig," a theater where plays are performed every half-hour and streets where fire trucks crawl along, sirens blazing, and tiny detectives in trenchcoats look for bad guys.

There are areas for toddlers -- a "farm" with activities for the smallest -- and for all other ages. Directors say 80 percent of their clientele is between the ages of 5 and 12, but most are between 6 and 10.

"I think it's sensational for kids. For parents, it's deadly," said Angelica Laguna, a 42-year-old accountant. "There's nothing for us to do. We sit here bored for three or four hours."

At the second park in Mexico, where construction begins this year, there will be more attractions for parents, such as an ESPN sports bar and an American Express lounge. Lopez Ancona said the slowest days of the year are when the Mexican national soccer team has an important game.

Attendance has risen every year since the attraction opened in 1999, and last year 800,000 children visited, Lopez Ancona said. The city was awarded a "Thea" prize last year from the U.S.-based Themed Entertainment Association.

Already the company has lined up about 100 sponsors for the U.S. park, Lopez Ancona said. They plan to choose their spot by April and open in summer 2003.

In Mexico City, parents praised the educational aspects. And in a country where some children's television shows are awash in hard-sell advertising, few expressed worries about the incessant plugs for the Cartoon Network on giant televisions or the Quaker State Oil billboards along the go-kart track.

"I think it's extraordinary. The important thing is that it teaches the kids to work, and to save their money. It builds a sense of responsibility," said Hermegildo Lagarda Leyva, director of a university from northern Mexico who brought his 7-year-old son Alejandro during a trip to Mexico City.

"It's really cool," said Ricardo David Ortega, 8, proudly holding up a Reforma newspaper front page with a banner headline above an article he had just completed on speedboats. "I love to work so I get more money, and then I have more next time I come."

Survey: More Young People Nagging

Alex Negelein admits that when there's something he really, really wants, he's willing to ask his dad for it "150 times."

The 9-year-old's pestering may be on the extreme side, but he's hardly alone. A new survey has found that, even when their parents say "no," nearly six of 10 young people keep nagging an average of nine times.

The survey, released Monday, also found that 10 percent of 12- and 13-year-olds said they ask their parents more than 50 times for products they've seen advertised.

Officials at the Center for a New American Dream, who commissioned the survey, call it the "nag factor." They say it shows that kids while annoying their parents are feeling pressure from peers to buy the latest products.

"They are being made to feel that if they don't have the right low-cut designer jeans, the right video game or the right designer watch, they aren't going to have a friend that they're going to be rejected by other kids, " says Betsy Taylor, executive director of the Takoma Park, Md.-based center, which promotes responsible consumption of resources and goods.

Of those polled, about a third said they feel pressure to buy certain products, and more than half said that buying those products makes them feel better about themselves.

When it comes to nagging, 55 percent said they can usually get their parents to give in.

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, included the answers of 750 American youth, ages 12 to 17, who were contacted by phone last month. But experts say nagging is a habit learned much earlier.

Marian Salzman, chief strategic officer for the ad agency Euro RSCG, says about 60 percent of the young people the agency has interviewed for research said they knew how to manipulate their parents on "small things" before they started first grade.

And, increasingly, even the youngest children have spending power an estimated $52 billion for ages 4 to 12 by 2006, compared with a projected $40 billion this year and $17.1 billion in 1994.

All of that has made nagging an "art form", says Salzman, who believes parents have only encouraged it by giving kids much more say in family decisions.

"Kids sit at the center of today's households," Salzman says.

Alex's dad, Chris Negelein, has instituted a rule: "Ask once, and only once." He says, with the help of counseling, Alex is learning to follow it.

And if he doesn't, he knows what happens.

"We have to leave the toy section," Alex says with a sigh.

As a reward for good behavior, Negelein takes his son to a Pokemon tournament near their home in Pompano Beach, Fla., on Saturdays. That way, Alex can actually play with the cards he has from the Japanese game, rather than just collect them and continually ask for more.

"You try to set the ground rules to teach your kids that materialism is a means to an end, but it's not a means to life," say Negelein, who is divorced and took custody of Alex a year ago to try to rein in his behavior.

But he admits it's sometimes difficult not to weaken, especially with the waves of licensed products that accompany every blockbuster movie.

In the long run, Taylor says she hopes the Center for a New American Dream can help persuade Congress to pass laws further limiting advertising to young people. But ultimately, she says, it's a parent's responsibility to set better limits and stick to them.

Marvin Berkowitz, a developmental psychologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and an expert in character education, agrees.

He says giving in to a child who "asks and asks and asks" only rewards the behavior. "The child essentially learns to be a nagger," he says.

Melissa Cooney, a 15-year-old from Indianapolis, believes that's true.

"If we are spoiled," she says, "it's kind of the parents fault, too, for giving in to us."

But she says sometimes teens just want to be heard and to have more control over their lives. That's why she bugged her parents until they agreed to let her visit her older sister in Florida this summer.

"They got sick of me asking," says Cooney, who saved money from her birthday and baby-sitting for the trip. "And I proved that I could get the money to do it."

___

On the Net:

Center for a New American Dream

Press Release

We Create the Messages and We Are the Medium, Say Global Youth Bees, Authenticity, Glocalization, Connectivity, and Sensuousness Are the New Marketing Realities

NEW YORK, July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Marketers looking to create "buzz" among global youth should focus on the Bees (the trend spreaders rather than the trendsetters) and get real about brand messaging and the media, says Euro RSCG Worldwide's X-Plorer Panel, made up of youth from around the world. Select members of the panel convened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in late June for six days of work and play. The conference focused on candid talk about brands and trends, and what's hot and not in youth culture.

"Today's youth have created brand new marketing realities," says Marian Salzman, Chief Strategy Officer, Euro RSCG Worldwide, who led the immersive session with 20 young people from ten countries. "They absolutely value brand authenticity and are opposed to brands that are didactic or that promote uniformity. These young people favor what we call 'glocalization' (meaning the retention of regional nuances in global branding efforts). They are marketing savvy and generally distrustful of the media, which tends to color the way they view world events and corporate behavior in general."

Throughout the course of the X-Plorer Panel Summit 2002, the young participants engaged in brainstorming exercises, debates, creative discussions, and social activities, all centered on the ultimate goal of answering the following two questions: What defines and unites the mosaic of youth aged 18-28 around the world? and How can we reach them?

Is There Such a Thing As Global Youth?

The answer to that question was clear: Generally speaking, the commonalities among youth from far-flung corners of the earth are far more pervasive than the differences that set them apart. Among other unifying factors identified during the summit were youth's strong desire to socialize and experience all the five senses, their mistrust of the media, their fear of isolation or decreased human contact, their personal ambition, and their embrace of new means of connectivity, including the Internet and mobile telephony.

Comments Ira Matathia, Director of Strategy, Euro RSCG MVBMS Partners, who co-led the immersion, "Time spent with these young people convinced our research team that the ties that bind global youth truly are far stronger than the differences that divide them. Interestingly, the rural/urban divide seems far more important than first/third world. The one dramatic difference we noted in terms of first/third world has to do with young people's attitudes toward the state of the world today and in the near future. There seems to be a consensus that the current state of the world, both politically and economically is pretty poor. In general, and perhaps surprisingly, youth in emerging markets tend to be more optimistic about what the future holds, while young people in the developed world evince a greater degree of pessimism and cynicism. Nevertheless, they uniformly expressed a sense of personal optimism -- a strong belief that they will succeed."

How Do We Reach Them?

The most important factor in successfully targeting any market is gaining a better understanding of the consumers within it. Our X-Plorer Panel summit revealed five important new realities that global youth marketers would do well to heed:

 
   1. The Bees Are the Buzz Builders: The greatest opportunity to reach the 
        $115 billion youth market? Focus on the Bees, Salzman says: "While
        traditional marketers target the Alphas, or trendsetters, as a means 
        of tipping trends into the mainstream, the Bees are actually the consumers 
        with the greatest influence over other consumers. They serve as self-appointed 
        messengers, delivering information and opinions to other Bees and to 
        members of their many communities. They are highly social and, unlike 
        many trendsetters, very open with the information they have. So while 
        the Bees are less likely than Alpha consumers to actually set styles or 
        trends, they are far more likely to contribute to the rapid pickup of 
        new products and ideas. They are the conduits through which the Alphas 
        are linked to the mainstream.

   2. Anti-Consumerism and Anti-Globalization Do Not Mean Anti-Brand: Global
        youth aren't opposed to brands and logos or even to corporations in
        general (although they are strongly suspicious of some multinational
        brands). What they do oppose are brands and companies that are preachy
        or hopelessly static. They seek to marry commercial styles with
        personal statements. Cultural fusion, New Balance, and Subway are hot;
        antisocial, Benetton, and McDonald's are not.

       If there's one thing marketers can do to reach today's global youth it
        is to convey a brand's authenticity, linked with tradition and strong
        (albeit evolving) values. Youth have empathy for independent, small,
        local brands, perhaps because these companies' struggles for success
        and individuality so closely mirror their own lives.

    3. Glocalization Is Intimate: For these young people, there's no
        contradiction between taking a global brand and embellishing it with
        local tradition -- it's a way of celebrating global similarities while
        respecting key differences. No surprise, then, that MTV's glocal
        approach of combining a global brand with local content is popular
        among the panelists.

    4. Connected 24/7: The degree to which the Internet was not discussed over
        the course of the summit is proof positive of the extent to which this
        technology is a given. Global youth adhere to the notion that
        "information is power" rather than complain of a sense of info
        overload.

       Connectivity also means multitasking and managing myriad relationship
        online: An X-Plorer panelist from China reports: "Many young people
        have found that the easiest way to manage different buddy lists is to
        have a separate identity for each circle of friends that they have?" A
        Dutch participant has adopted the same solution: "For each group of
        friends, I have a different e-mail account."

       The one major distinction in the group? Whereas Asian and European
        youth rely on SMS text messaging throughout the day, it is still a
        rarity among Americans.

    5. Feed Me: In Search of Sensuous Experiences: Youth's credo is "fuel the
        senses," preferably with healthful, highly flavored food and fusion
        music that expresses passion and a sense of identity. Food is viewed
        as a universal language with many dialects, serving as an entryway to
        understanding other cultures. Since socializing is "in," "feel-good
        food" has more to do with whom one is dining than what's on the
        plate. While music genres have created strong, differentiated
        subcultures, the ultimate global music language is party music.

METHODOLOGY

Euro RSCG Worldwide's S.T.A.R. team (Strategic Trendspotting and Research) considers human intelligence (HUMINT) an essential tool with which to garner a deep, visceral understanding of the people behind the numbers in quantitative research studies. Never is this truer than when dealing with the youth market. Young influencers rarely show up at focus groups. So Euro RSCG goes to them. We know knows their names, the food they eat, and the music in their CD players. A year ago we formalized our loose network of American Influencers into a 500-member X-Plorer Panel. Since then, we have expanded the panel to include young Influencers from more than a dozen countries. Panelists are recruited using a "six degrees of separation" technique, whereby specially selected Alphas and Bees introduce us to other influential youths within their networks. These youth then introduce us to other Influencers, and so on and so on. The panel is tapped on a regular basis, providing input on anything from current events to new product launches.

The 20 X-Plorers chosen to participate in this year's summit in Amsterdam came from Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and China, in addition to the United States. Members of this statistically unrepresentative group were chosen based on their status as Alpha and Bee consumers within their home communities.

ABOUT EURO RSCG

Euro RSCG Worldwide, one of the world's five largest integrated marketing communications agencies, is made up of 233 offices located in 75 countries throughout Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Euro RSCG provides advertising, marketing services, corporate communications, and interactive solutions to global, regional, and local clients. The agency's client roster includes Air France, Credit Suisse Group, Danone Group, Intel Corporation, LVMH Louis Vuitton, Reckitt Benckiser, Volvo and Yahoo!. Headquartered in New York, Euro RSCG Worldwide is the largest unit of Havas, the world's sixth-largest communications group (Nasdaq: HAVS, Euronext Paris SA: HAV.PA).

Peggy Nahmany
     Global Communications Director
     Euro RSCG Worldwide
     212-886-2041

SOURCE: Euro RSCG Worldwide

Top U.K. bishop slams 'Disney consumerism'

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) - The hot favorite to become the next spiritual head of the Church of England launched a blistering attack against the consumer society on Tuesday, saying it corrupted the young and made them prematurely sexually aware.

Entertainment giant Walt Disney Co, child talent shows and computer games came under particularly heavy fire from Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Wales and favorite to be named this week as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans.

A government source said this week news on the appointment of the new archbishop -- the subject of intense religious debate and media speculation in the last few months -- would come before Parliament breaks for summer recess on Wednesday.

In a book serialized in the London Times newspaper this week, Williams hit out at children's talent shows and electronic games, which he says typify modern society's unashamed perception of the young as merely another type of consumer.

"Anything but innocuous is the conscription of children into fetishistic hysteria of style wars," Williams wrote.

"It is still mercifully rare to murder for a pair of trainers, or to commit suicide because of an inability to keep up with peer group fashion; but what can we say about a marketing culture that so openly feeds and colludes with obsession?"

"The Disney empire has developed this to an unprecedented degree of professionalism," he said.

He also argues that the growing trend towards talent and beauty shows for youngsters puts pressure on children to become sexual objects at too early an age.

Born in Wales in 1950, Williams became Oxford University's youngest theology professor at 36, was enthroned as Bishop of Monmouth in 1992 and elected Archbishop of Wales in 2000.

A talented linguist, he would become the first Archbishop of Canterbury from outside England since the church's 16th century breakaway from Rome.

Liberals in the church have backed Williams, a well-known fan of U.S. cartoon satire 'The Simpsons', while traditionalists have railed against his tolerance of homosexual clergy.

Besides his attack on consumer society, Williams is likely to create further waves with his support of women bishops, his open criticism of the Afghanistan conflict and his dismissal of any plans for a U.S. invasion of Iraq as immoral.

Brand names bring special brain buzz

It is what every advertiser would have dreamed of - brand names have a unique impact on our brains.

Brand names engage the "emotional", right-hand side of the brain more than other words, new experiments suggest. And they are more easily recognised when they are in capital letters.

"It is surprising," says Eran Zaidel, head of the University of California in Los Angeles laboratory where the research was conducted. "The rules that apply to word recognition in general do not necessarily apply here."

Robert Jones, head of consulting at the brand strategists Wolff Olins in London, told New Scientist: "This is very intriguing indeed. It supports our instinctive belief that brands are a special class of word - they are like a poem all in one word in their ability to evoke and express ideas."

Unique fonts

Our brains do not process all types of words in the same way. For example, some patients with head injuries can quickly match a personal proper name like Bill Clinton to a photo - but common nouns like "house" or "paper" mean nothing to them.

Possidonia Gontijo of the University of California in Los Angeles wondered if our brains lump brand names into their own special category. They are unlike any other class of word because they are consistently represented in the same way, with unique fonts, cases and colours.

And unlike proper names, they usually apply to a group of objects. Most people know of only one "Taj Mahal", for instance, but "Sony" conjures up everything from TVs to computers and cameras.

To find out more, Gontijo and her colleagues tested how quickly and accurately 48 students recognised hundreds of words as real or not. The real words were brand names like "Compaq" and common nouns like "river". "Nonwords" were 108 meaningless letter strings like "beash" and "noerds". The students saw the words either all in capitals, or all in lower case, flashed to the left or the right side of a computer screen.

Brand power

The students recognised the common nouns most quickly and accurately, followed by the brand names, then nonwords. Whether common nouns were in capitals or lower case made no difference. But the students recognised brand names more accurately when they were in capital letters, something that advertisers will be keen to know.

Also, common names were most easily recognised in the right visual field - which connects most strongly to the left side of the brain. But this effect was less strong for the brand names, suggesting the right side of the brain plays a bigger role in identifying brand names.

That makes sense, claims Jones, because the right side of the brain deals with emotions: "A brand's power is that it conjures up a whole range of associations and ideas, which are primarily emotional."

Additional work by Gontijo suggests that people recognise personal proper names more quickly and accurately than brand names, leaving brand names in a class all of their own.

But how could our brains have evolved processing circuits for brands, which are such a recent invention? Zaidel says they did not; the fact that we can read at all suggests new language features simply recruit existing brain machinery. "While brands are a recent linguistic development, so is reading from an evolutionary perspective," he says.

Journal reference: Brain and Language (vol 82, p 327)

Hazel Muir

NewScientist.com

Psychology, UCLA

Wolff Olins

Brain and Language

Money Can't Buy Happiness for the Materialistic

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Even millionaires can be unhappy in life if their material desires are bigger than their bank accounts, new research suggests.

In a series of studies of college students, researchers found that participants' satisfaction with various hypothetical incomes depended upon whether they would be able to buy the things they desired. Even "very comfortable" six-figure incomes often weren't enough if participants felt they would be missing out on the toys wealthier people enjoyed.

In one of the studies, which asked the students to envision themselves in the year 2050, participants were less likely to be happy with an annual salary of $150,000 if they found out they wouldn't be able to afford the "teletransporters" that futuristic folks would be using to whisk themselves around the globe--among other "desirable" possessions.

In another study, participants described the type of home and other possessions they hoped to one day have, and their future incomes were estimated based on the careers they wanted to pursue. Overall, income satisfaction was similar among the students--until some found out they would have a tough time reaching their material aspirations, sending financial satisfaction downhill.

And if people aren't happy with their buying power, they may be unhappy in general, according to study author Dr. Ed Diener, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Materialistic people have been found in many studies to be less happy," he told Reuters Health. "For one thing, materialism can distract people from things such as social relationships, which are more important to happiness."

Of course, there is no simple path to overall happiness in life, and having money "is not bad," according to Diener. Past research, he noted, shows that well-off people are, on average, slightly happier than poorer folks.

"It is just that the strong desire for money can be self-defeating because one can never get enough," Diener said.

The current findings, reported in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ( news - web sites), suggest that having desires in line with one's income--and not just making more money--is important to happiness, according to Diener.

"People 50 years ago made less than half of what we make today," he said, "but they were about as happy as we are."

SOURCE: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2002;83:725-734.

Thailand to begin grading students' "goodness"

BANGKOK, Thailand - In an effort to steer students toward morality and away from materialism, Thai high schools and colleges will be asked to grade them based on their "goodness," a government official said Monday.

The "goodness report book" will record students' community service as well as their emotional and intelligence quotients, said Suchart Muangkeow, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of University Affairs.

He told The Associated Press that the new grading system, which has been long in the planning, will come into effect in June 2003 in state-run as well as private schools and colleges.

The announcement coincided with recent news about an academically successful doctor killing his doctor girlfriend, and a famous gynecologist accused of murdering his wife.

The two slayings have led Thai government officials and medical professionals to question the society's emphasis on academic accomplishment rather than moral values.

"It's very easy for those students to get stressed out because of the highly competitive nature of medical school," said Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand, Thailand's famous forensic pathologist.

"Our education system only breeds competition but never teaches them how to manage emotions."

Suchart said admissions committees at Thai colleges and universities will start taking into account the goodness report books starting 2004 while evaluating potential students.

Suchart said students graded on goodness would be less likely to be drawn to materialism and corruption.

Critics of the project say the concept is well-meaning but may be impractical.

Goodness is an abstract idea and without tangible criteria for evaluation, teacher biases could slant assessment, Thanit Thongthanya, assistant director of Suksanaree School, was quoted as saying by the Nation newspaper.

"In terms of applying a measuring stick to students' growth and development, it's pretty tough," David Miller, high school principal of Ruam Rudee International School, told the AP.

What The "Bling-Bling" Is Goin' On?

The Cash Money motto is: "We got to drink 'til we throw up." Millions of African-American youth's primary pre-occupation is Cash Money's culture of being tattooed up, "iced" up and Rolexed up. The Cash Money Crew's pinky rings are platinum plus and their grills are all "slugged up."

In the late 1970's and early 1980's hip hop became the expression of a new generation squeezed between the fading promises of civil rights era policies and inner city blight spawned by Black middle class abandon. As this generation has advanced in age and, in some cases income, "Bling bling" - expensive jewelry, flashy SUVs, videos, and flamboyant fashions - became a mainstay of today's Black America's "Under 40" crowd. "Bling-bling-ism" is a dysfunctional trend we have toward material worship and self-indulgence.

Cash Money crew claim they're just celebrating the new wealth of poor inner city youth. In essence, their obsession with money, fascination with crime, and selfish indulgence signals gross absorption of mainstream psychology and social ethic. Despite millions of dollars flowing to and through the rap music industry, hip hop urban clothing businesses and gold-plated professional athletes, it goes to fuel violent causes, and not into support of strategies geared to empowering African-American capitalism.

A sensible rap song verse says: "These cats drink champagne to toast death and pain - like slaves on a ship talkin' 'bout who got the flyest chains." Hip-hoppers' disinterest in race consciousness illustrates their alienation from the civil rights generation. Too many bling-blingers proudly admit to being concerned only with sex and money. Although the Hip-Hop Generation includes middle-management corporate types, they too shun any notion of being burdened with topics having to do with race consciousness, preferring to associate economic, political struggle issues with their parent's generation.

Like Spike Lee and his "40 Acres and A Mule" production company, other members of the hip-hop generation must begin to accept responsibility as vehicles for conscious Black social organization. Black Hip-hoppers must understand and act on their power as the primary propaganda tool for the reeducation of African American youth brainwashed by society's subconscious symbols of white supremacy. The ability to use mass media and hip-hop's economic potential to reeducate and empower Africans in America and throughout the Diaspora could be hip-hop's most lasting contribution.

Cash Money People, along with their parents need to take note of what their materialism is doing to the fate of the world. Their gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles are rapidly depleting the world's limited oil resources, and, at least, 20 percent of the "ice" resting on bling-blingers' fingers, chests, ears, noses, lips, and "grills" (teeth and car) are deviations of the "Blood Diamonds" from Africa that are used to fund rebel wars there. Africa's warring factions buy arms with proceeds from uncut diamonds sold to world markets.

The trade in "Blood Diamonds" has financed wars and fed corruption that brought on the collapse of state institutions in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Bling-blingers' glittering gems are valuable commodities in moving finance around the world.

Racism is worldwide and is elusive, deceiving, and often-invisible social engineering that hides within European-oriented public policy and social mores. Only in working together can African Americans overcome the obsession with mainstream acceptance and assimilation mind-set. Only when all generations of African Americans "turn off" to the false belief that ruthless pursuit of individual wealth is the American Dream, can we "turn on" to giving sufficient attention to building independent and autonomous institutions that eradicate policies, symbols, and practices in place to maintain African people in inferior statuses here, and everywhere.

New Black Voices: What The "Bling-Bling" Is Goin' On?

Some want gifts to be less a part of Hanukkah

It's a familiar lament this time of year.

The emphasis on gift-giving and the excesses of merchandising debase the holiday.

Consumerism trumps spiritualism. Shopping supplants praying.

We're talking about Hanukkah, of course.

The Jewish "Festival of Lights," set to begin its eight-day run at sundown tonight, has been an occasion for decades to exchange presents, mimicking Christmas.

But while priests and ministers may deplore the commercialism of the Christian holiday, some rabbis see an extra reason to bemoan what's happened to Hanukkah.

That's because the Jewish festival celebrates an ancient resistance to the forces of assimilation, while the gift-giving reflects a modern submission to the pull of American culture.

In the view of some rabbis, injecting the Christmas custom of exchanging presents into the Jewish observance of Hanukkah contradicts the very essence of the holiday.

"Gift-giving is really the undoing of Hanukkah," said Rabbi Daniel Schiff of Temple B'nai Israel, a Reform synagogue in White Oak. "It has effectively made it into a Jewish Christmas."

Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Some want gifts to be less a part of Hanukkah

German priest starts "Santa-free zone"

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German priest fed up with the growing commercialism of Christmas has launched an anti-Santa Claus campaign featuring bumper stickers that proclaim: "This is a Santa-free zone".

Eckhard Bieger, a Roman Catholic priest in Frankfurt, said he is all for the holiday season, gift exchanges and family celebrations. But he believes the twinkly-eyed old man in a red costume is a commercial fraud.

"Santa Claus is a creation of the advertising industry and Coca-Cola to further commercial interests," Bieger told Reuters on Thursday.

"I don't have anything against Christmas presents and don't want to disappoint children," he said. "My aim is to put St Nicholas back at the centre of attention rather than this Santa Claus figure, which is just an empty shell."

Swedish-American Artist Haddon Sundblom created the rosy-cheeked Santa used in Coca-Cola's Christmas advertisements in 1931, and Bieger complained that it has been imitated ever since.

Christina Jacob, spokeswoman for Coke's Germany subsidiary Coca-Cola GmbH, said the company was proud Sundblom had created the Santa Claus character the world knows today for the Coca-Cola ad campaigns used during the 1930s and 1940s.

"Sundblom used a cheery-faced Coca-Cola truck driver as his model for the portrait," said Jacob, who had not heard of the Frankfurt priest's campaign. "We're naturally all proud that Coca-Cola is so closely entwined with the Christmas season."

The modern Santa is a far cry from the severe St Nicholas who meted out punishment or gifts to children in continental Europe or the Old Christmas figure who aided drunken festivities of the English.

Bieger has distributed some 5,000 anti-Santa stickers. The stickers portray a Santa figure dressed in red with a circle and bar crossing the image -- similar to the international signs for "nuclear-free zone" and "no smoking".

"The children should be at the centre of attention. We need to focus more on core values and less on commercialism."

Bieger said he wanted to revive a tradition in which St Nicholas went from house to house on the night of December 6 and put sweets into shoes of well-behaved children.

Ananova: German priest starts anti-Santa campaign

Catholic Church Pope Says Consumerism Hurts Christmas

Pope says Christmas' true meaning at risk of being lost by rampant consumerism

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II said Sunday that Christmas' true meaning risked being lost by a "consumerist mentality" that is fueled by publicity.

To combat the trend, gift-givers should remember the poor and needy this holiday season, the pope said on the last Sunday before Christmas.

The 82-year-old pontiff made the comments in his weekly appearance in St. Peter's Square, already decked with a towering Christmas tree and parts of the creche, the traditional scene depicting Christ's birth in a manger.

"The simplicity of the creche contrasts with the image of Christmas that sometimes is shown by insistent publicity messages," the pope said.

"Even the beautiful tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts among friends and family, under the impact of a certain consumerist mentality, risks losing its authentic sense of Christmas," he said.

He said instead, the holiday season gave the faithful the opportunity to turn gestures of gift-giving into gestures of "solidarity and welcoming toward the poor and needy."

The pope is due to celebrate Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

When net worth equals self-worth

Advice about money and soul is a tough sell in Tinseltown

It was dinnertime when the 80 or so guests began arriving at the Beverly Hills home of Sandy Grushow, chairman of the Fox Television Entertainment Group. A pianist played standards on a baby grand in the foyer of the large Tudor-style house that Grushow shares with his wife and two children. An army of waiters offered hors d'oeuvres on glistening platters.

The guest of honor, Rabbi Steven Leder, opted for a tiny corned beef and cheese sandwich, then climbed a few steps up the Grushows' elegant staircase and quieted the crowd.

"I thought we might begin tonight by taking an opportunity to turn to your left or right, to meet your neighbor," Leder said. "Then, I would appreciate it if you would just share your net worth with them."

The room shook with nervous laughter. No one complied.

Leder, 43, is the senior rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a synagogue in Los Angeles that counts many of Hollywood's rich and famous among its members. The evening was a chance for him to unveil his new book, "More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul," for some of the wealthiest members of his congregation: those who make the deals and create the programming that ends up on movie and television screens the world over.

While Leder did not mean to offend, he knew that the book's central premise - that raging materialism and the relentless pursuit of money lead to moral bankruptcy - might strike some in his audience like a stick in the eye.

Over all, the book's messages are hardly fire and brimstone: Don't be a workaholic; give generously to charity; teach your children that materialism, like racism, is not O.K.

Nevertheless, in Hollywood, where who's up, who's down and where one stands in the pecking order are constant obsessions, Leder's chosen topic is a thorny one. Perhaps more than any place on earth, money here is a way to assert your rank. And the fickle nature of the entertainment business can make even the very affluent feel insecure in a way that makes no amount of money ever seem enough.

"This is a town where the next big script could be written by the person who's handing you the cup of coffee at Starbucks," said Stuart Krasnow, a temple member and an executive producer of reality programming at NBC. "Things change so rapidly. Success can go away rapidly."

And that is what makes the rabbi's supporters a bit worried for him. By focusing on money, said Erwin Stoff, a partner in the management-production company 3 Arts Entertainment, Leder entered "a risky area."

Leonard Goldberg, producer of the "Charlie's Angels" TV series and films, agreed.

"This book will force people to look at themselves," he said, "and there may be some who don't appreciate that suggestion. We're not building bridges here, or saving lives. We're just making movies. And when you're making so much money for what secretly you think may be the very little that you do, it can be very unsettling."

Leder stressed that "More Money Than God" was not aimed solely at wealthy people, at Jews or at the entertainment industry.

"It's a book for people who equate their net worth with their self-worth," he said. "In this culture, that means everyone."

Leder stops well short of condemning his congregants or anyone else for owning private jets or other trappings of wealth, stressing that many of the wealthiest people he knows are also generous philanthropists. Still, he hopes that his book will coax people into taking a harder look at the impact of overvaluing money for themselves and for their children.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "I like a nice party. I like a good glass of wine. I'm not saying that people shouldn't enjoy themselves."

But, he added, "excess in absence of values is idolatry."

Within the congregation, Leder has a reputation for being politic but blunt. His talk this year to the 13-year-olds who are preparing their bar or bat mitzvah, the traditional coming-of-age ceremony, and to their parents is a case in point.

"He took a chalkboard and drew a line down the middle and on the left-hand side wrote 'a.m.' and on the right wrote 'p.m.,'" recalled Stoff, whose daughter is 13. "He said, 'I go to the morning service of the bar mitzvah; what values do I see reflected?' Everybody said love of family, respect for history and tradition and scholarship.

"Then he moves to the p.m. side: 'What values do I see reflected in the evening portion?'" Everyone laughed, Stoff said, as they flashed on the lavish parties they have all attended.

"The rabbi said, 'Here's the challenge for you all: See how many of those a.m. values can be evident all night long.'

"It was so on the money," Stoff said. "No pun intended."

Amy Wallace wrote this for The New York Times.

Peace on Earth and lots of stuff to Goodwill

A few years ago, I wrote a column about how I don't make New Year's resolutions anymore. You can fail at those only so long before it's time to admit defeat and move on. This year was to be no different. I would make no promises I could not keep.

Then, there I was, minding my own business in my mother's living room, sitting in front of a Christmas tree circled by presents, when a column by Leonard Pitts Jr. of The Miami Herald caught my eye. The headline: "Materialism rules the holidays."

Pitts lamented how America was suffering from a severe case of "affluenza" -- empty consumerism gone wild -- and how malls have become our churches, the purchase an act of sacrament.

In short, we all shop too often for things we don't need. The problem, Pitts says, is that we can never buy enough to feel whole. We're all on a fool's errand, credit card in hand.

Pitts' column stayed with me for days. I thought about it Christmas morning when I sat with my family and opened present after present. I thought about it when I packed all those presents in the car on a snowy Christmas night. And I thought about it again when I carried them all into my house the next day -- a house already chock-full of "stuff."

Although I often clean like a madman this time of year, Pitt's column sent me into overdrive. Over New Year's, I cleaned the clutter from the storage room shelves. I then swept through my closet, and this time instead of just rearranging, which is my annual habit, I actually put clothes in bags for Goodwill. Shirts I haven't worn in years, shoes, a dozen ties.

And then I moved on to my bureau. Socks. Sweaters. T-shirts never worn. Into the bag they went.

The process was so cleansing that when it was over I felt lighter, despite the holiday pounds I'd put on. But when I looked, I still had enough left to clothe a good-sized pep club of aging preppies.

It was then I made a resolution. I would buy nothing in 2003. I would join what is known as the simplicity movement.

Oh, I'll buy food and toothpaste and things like that. And come spring, I'll go to the garden center and buy my window-box plants and the like. And friends and family need not fear; they'll still get their presents.

But I won't buy anything for myself. No retro radios from Restoration Hardware, no antique walking sticks for my collection, no shirts from Brooks Brothers. I'm embarrassed to say that even after the purge, 74 shirts still hang in my closet.

Will I be seduced by a black cashmere turtleneck come March? Will a pair of buttery soft moccasins trip me up this summer? Will something Burberry beckon in the fall? I don't know, but it'll be an adventure to see how much "stuff" I can actually snub in the coming months.

Pitts ended his column with these words: "Maybe wealth begins the day you are finally able to want what you have. Finally manage to say something none of us, rich or poor, ever seem able to say. I have enough. I don't need anything more than this."

Could less really translate to more? Could I really be a richer man this time next year? I'm willing to give it the old college try.

Stay tuned. God only knows how long this show will run.

Dalai Lama calls for rejection of materialism at Buddhist gathering in eastern India

GAYA, India - The Dalai Lama led Tibetan Buddhists' highest worship ceremony, calling for the rejection of materialism, greed and violence.

"Money breeds greed, jealousy and other social vices. It can never bring joy," the spiritual leader said Sunday, as he led 20,000 Tibetans from across the world in the prayer ceremony called Kalchakra, or Wheel of Time. It is the biggest annual gathering of Buddhism's Mahayana sect.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 with thousands of supporters after a failed uprising against China. Since then, he has headed a government-in-exile in the northern Indian town of Dharmsala. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his nonviolent struggle against Chinese rule of his homeland.

The prayer ceremony is held in the eastern Indian city of Gaya, where the religion's founder is believed to have attained enlightenment.

UNEP Looks at Making Green "Cool"

NAIROBI, Kenya, February 5, 2003 (ENS) - Hoping to make sustainable living more "cool," the United Nations (news - web sites) Environment Programme is launching a new initiative aimed at improving the image of environmentally friendly lifestyle choices. The plan, devised with the help of social scientists, was announced Tuesday at the agency's weeklong Governing Council meeting in Nairobi.

Many audiences are turned off by the judgmental tone of traditional messages about the environment, UNEP Executive-Director Klaus Toepfer told environmental ministers. Officials attending the meeting are discussing a variety of related issues, including ways that governments, industry and the public can promote sustainable consumption patterns.

"People are simply not listening, so we need to make sustainable lifestyles fashionable and 'cool,' as the young people might say," Toepfer said. "Messages from governments, exhorting people to drive their cars less or admonishing them for buying products that cause environmental damage, appear not to be working."

Studies suggest that just five percent of the public in northern hemisphere countries are embracing so called sustainable lifestyles and sustainable consumerism.

Toepfer said experts have concluded that the traditional messages from governments and green groups urging the public to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyles and purchasing habitats need to be overhauled. Many of these messages are too "guilt laden," he said, and instead of "turning people on" to the environment, are switching them off.

In a pioneering move, UNEP has enlisted psychologists and behaviorists to help market "cool" lifestyles as a way of selling clean and green products.

The partnership with social scientists and behaviorists is being carried out under UNEP's Sustainable Consumption Programme and Life Cycle Initiative, which is looking at a wide range of issues, from labeling to eco-friendly product design, to promote more environment friendly consumption.

The new program compliments initiatives, some of which are being orchestrated by UNEP, to develop a network of cleaner production centers across the globe to help reduce polluting manufacturing processes.

More than 50 young people from across the globe underlined the importance of promoting sustainable lifestyles in a statement to the environment ministers gathered in Nairobi.

"We commit to awareness raising campaigns to lifestyle change at a community level and request governments to further encourage sustainable consumption," the statement read. "We support the UNEP YouthXChange program as an excellent example of work in this field."

The statement also provides case studies of youth organizations that have made a real difference in achieving sustainable purchasing patterns. For example, Copa Roca, a fashion company in Brazil, has made a successful, profitable business by making clothes out of recycled fabrics.

UNEP experts also cited campaigns by KIA, the Korean car manufacturer, and the European detergent industry, as two examples of selling positive, environmentally friendly consumerism and lifestyles.

KIA has a campaign in the United Kingdom which urges people not to use cars for short journeys, only long distance ones. It provides a mountain bike with every new car purchased and helps organize "walking buses." These create networks of parents who assist in escorting children to school on foot.

The European "Wash Right" campaign extols the virtues of low temperature washing by emphasizing the benefits to the clothes, as well as the energy savings achieved.

"Sustainable consumption is not about consuming less, it is about consuming differently, consuming efficiently, and having an improved quality of life," said Jacqueline Aloisi De Larderel, director of UNEP's division of technology, industry and economics, which is spearheading the new initiative.

"It also means sharing between the richer and the poorer," she added. "This is not just an issue for so called rich countries. Many rapidly industrializing, developing countries, such as China, are keenly aware of the environmental threats posed by uncontrolled consumerism and the risks of not making products environmentally friendly."

Larderel said it was no coincidence that the ministerial debate on consumption patterns, scheduled for Thursday, is being led by Zhenhua Xie, the Chinese Environment Minister and Borge Brende, the Norwegian Environment Minister.

China is one of 52 countries surveyed by UNEP in collaboration with Consumers International. The survey found that many countries are trying to promote sustainable consumption through a variety of measures, including public awareness campaigns and "green taxes" that favor environmentally friendly goods.

China has factored sustainable consumption into its Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests. The law's impacts include publicity and educational programs, ecolabeling, certification of environmentally sound products, and 30 percent sales tax reductions for light, less polluting vehicles.

Bas De Leeuw, coordinator of UNEP's Sustainable Consumption Programme, said UNEP is also working with industry and businesses to make products and services more environmentally friendly way.

As an example, he cited Kluber, a leading lubricants company based in Munchen, Germany. Kluber has developed a mobile laboratory that visits industries to ensure that their machinery is operating as efficiently as possible. The benefits of this service include reductions in smoke, vibrations and noise pollution.

In Italy, the detergent supplier Allegrini uses a mobile shop to sell direct to consumers, reducing the need for separate shipping of each item.

The UNEP initiative is also drawing up green procurement information materials for governments and local authorities in developed and developing countries. Using these materials can help authorities ensure that their tremendous purchasing power is used in an environmentally sound manner.

"Many developing countries are keen to buy environmentally sound products and services but do not know where to go," noted De Leeuw. "We are developing an information network and Internet service so that if they, say, want to buy environmentally friendly pens or vehicles, they know where to go."

Stressing that making people feel guilty about their lifestyles and purchasing habits is achieving only limited success, explained Toepfer. "We need to look again at how we enlist the public to reduce pollution and live in ways that cause minimal environmental damage."

"We also need to make it clear that there are real, personal, benefits to living in harmony with the planet," he added.

If I Am So Rich, Why Am I So Unhappy?

PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- One of modern society's firmest convictions is that money does, indeed, buy happiness -- period, end of discussion. It's a global perception, the universal truth that wealth answers all our prayers, cures all our ills, rids all our fears and allows us to live happily ever after. Not so, says Thayer Cheatham Willis, psychotherapist and herself an inheritor.

According to Willis, M.A., L.C.S.W., a personal coach specializing in issues of affluence, financial wealth can in fact be detrimental to one's mental, moral, psychological and emotional well being. She tells how in "Navigating the Dark Side of Wealth: A Life Guide for Inheritors" (New Concord Press, $25), available in bookstores or on online at www.thayerwillis.com.

"In this rudderless world of material excess and conspicuous consumption, millions of privileged but disaffected members of the leisure class have extracted everything from their wealth and success, except for happiness," says Willis.

The daughter of one of the founders of Georgia-Pacific Corporation, Willis grew up in a world cushioned by wealth. So when in her mid-thirties she heard that a fifth suicide occurred from within her peer group, it finally hit her squarely that the emotional issues she overcame were echoed among her peers. Already a counselor at this point in her life, it was this realization that led her to pursue her current practice.

"Today we live in a very secularized society with great emphasis on materialism," says former Oregon Senator and Governor Mark O. Hatfield in his foreword to Willis' book. "One could say that the accumulation of worldly goods dominates many of our public and private goals. It is refreshing to note that (Willis) can easily discern a balance between the material and the spiritual."

"No one gets a free ride through life," says Willis. "Particularly not those who believe they deserve one simply because they have the price of a ticket."

"Navigating the Dark Side of Wealth: A Life Guide for Inheritors" (ISBN 0-9725494-0-4) is available online at www.thayerwillis.com, in bookstores or by writing New Concord Press, P.O. Box 3825, Portland, OR 97208-3825.

Kids' Goals Hold Clues for Depression Risk -Study

LONDON (Reuters) - Children who equate happiness with money, fame and beauty are more likely to suffer from depression than youngsters who do not place as much value on being rich and attractive.

Dr. Helen Street of the Queen Elizabeth Medical Center in Perth, Australia, told a psychology conference on Saturday that children as young as four years old can suffer from depression and up to 20 percent of youngsters could be at risk of the illness in the future.

She added that early beliefs about happiness and life goals could be an indication in young children of their vulnerability to depression.

"Children who look outside themselves and think if they get enough money and are popular enough then they will be happy are actually much more likely to be depressed than those that think money might be a nice thing to have but at the end of the day their happiness comes from their own personal development," said Street.

In a study of 402 Australian children aged nine to 12 years old, Street and her colleagues identified 16 with signs of clinical depression and 112 others at risk of suffering from depression in the future.

Children were asked to identify their top life goals and what would make them happy. Close relationships with family and friends and feeling good about themselves were among the most popular goals.

But nearly 12 percent thought having lots of money was the most important thing in life. Those children were also the most likely to experience depression, according to Street.

"That was significantly shown," Street said.

She advised parents to be aware of possible symptoms of depression in children such a change in eating and sleeping habits, irritability and a loss of interest in school, friends and favorite activities.

They should also help their children understand what is likely to make them happiest in life and that it is not all about fame and fortune.

Street presented her findings to a meeting of the British Psychological Society in the south coast town of Bournemouth.

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British Psychological Society

Money Ranks Behind Family and Health

"I think the economy and tensions in the world have put people's values in a more idealistic place than a materialistic place," said Susan Ungaro, editor of Family Circle magazine.

She points to a survey conducted for the magazine in January, when war in Iraq (news - web sites) was still a threat, that found 84 percent of adults believe Americans worship money. But when asked to name what was most important to them, money came in a distant third behind relationships with family and friends, and good health.

"Yes, we think it's important to own a home. And yes, we put a premium on saving and on being debt-free," said Susan Ungaro, editor of the magazine. "But the truth is, people really care about the things that money can't buy."

Nancy Langdon Jones, a certified financial planner in Upland, Calif., has seen that trend in her clients.

It started after the terror attacks, she said. "Then people were hit with the weak economy and now the war. There's a lot of uncertainty out there."

For some, that has translated to pulling back financially.

"They are consciously looking for ways to save and cut costs," Jones said. "They're having picnics instead of expensive dinners out."

This group, she believes, is likely to return to more traditional spending patterns when the uncertainty is removed. But others appear to be making life-changing decisions.

"I'm seeing people who are coming in looking for things other than investments," she said.

That's a change from as recently as five years ago, when couples wanted to talk about accumulating wealth and buying palatial properties and supporting lavish lifestyles, she said.

"That's not there anymore," Jones said.

Instead, she's seeing couples try to de-emphasize money in their lives and focus on what they think would make them happy and comfortable.

"Some are even retiring early, with less money than they planned, and cutting back on their lifestyles," Jones said. "They're cutting things out of their lives that don't excite them, that don't fulfill them."

Betsy Taylor, founder and president of the Center for a New American Dream in Takoma Park, Md., believes the materialism that took root in America following World War II evolved into a "luxury fever" in the 1980s and '90s, producing $8,000 backyard barbecue grills and gold-plated cars and consumer demand for them.

"We are in such a commercial society that it's easy for us to be distracted, to lose sight of what's important," Taylor said.

The terror attacks, the economic downturn and the war have made people fearful, Taylor said.

As a result, she said, "They're digging deep and asking themselves, 'What does it mean to live in a world that seems so insecure and uncertain?'"

The answer, the center has found in surveys and focus groups, "is overwhelmingly that people want to spend more time with their families and their loved ones ... and less time in the rat race," Taylor said.

Taylor suggests that if adults have any doubt about that thesis, they should ask their children.

The center did, in a contest that drew 2,000 responses and became the basis for Taylor's new book, "What Kids Really Want That Money Can't Buy."

"The most touching thing was the volume of letters and art that focused on their hunger for more time with parents and family," Taylor said. "There were really heartfelt things like, 'My dad works all the time. I know we need the money, but I really wish I could see him.'"

As Taylor sees it, "In the rush to get and to do and to stay ahead, we adults can lose our way."

___

www.familycircle.com
www.nljones.com
www.newdream.org

Online Extra: "It's a Bart Simpson Culture"

From his cluttered office at Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, Andrew Sum has been watching chart after chart deliver the same disturbing news for several years. The data show a lack of positive educational momentum among boys and young men. Sum says the new gender gap could create a new kind of "social dynamite" that will drive deep rifts in society. If he had his way, high schools across the country would be plastered with posters reading "Wanted: Five Million Men." That's how many more men it will take, Sum points out, to achieve gender parity in higher education by 2010.

BusinessWeek's Michelle Conlin talked with Sum at length about his views concerning everything from Bart Simpson to the impending marriage squeeze. Following are edited excerpts of their conversation:

Q: You're very careful to point out that it's not as if boys are completely worse off than they were a generation ago.

A: That's right. The real issue is that men just haven't made any real progress. The dangerous thing about this is that we're in an economy that is rewarding the educated more and more. And men are just not responding to this new reality.

Yes, some guys are doing very, very well. But more guys are doing very, very badly. And it's those guys that will dominate prisons, homelessness, and who will be far less likely to get married and raise kids. Men have fallen behind, and they're continuing to fall behind. And it's going to be a tragedy for the country.

Q: Are college degrees the new high-school degrees? In other words, is it even more imperative now that people go to college?

A: Absolutely. Just think back to the heyday of manufacturing in the 1970s. Back then, you could go into trucking or construction and do alright. But you just can't get into the middle class today with a low-class education. Today, your college counterpart will make 90% more than you. And so what we have is a situation where men are really underinvesting in themselves. They're shortchanging their future.

Q: What's the ultimate cost of this underinvestment?

A: Our country needs a well-educated workforce. Our productivity, our innovation, our growth -- they all depend upon the population getting continuous improvement in literacy and other skills. This lack of progress among men will hold down productivity growth. It will also have a big impact on male earnings, and, as a result, for taxes and government spending.

Already, we've become so much more dependent on the immigrant workforce. It's also true, when we do happiness studies, that better-educated people tend to be much happier. So there are immense social implications across the board here.

Q: But isn't it true that men with high school degrees still make more than their female counterparts?

A: There used to be a big pay gap between the genders among high-school graduates. But today, boys out of high school only make about 5% more, on average, than girls in the same boat.

Q: What role is the culture playing?

A: There are so many strains to that question. But one of the biggest things that jumps out at me is rap culture. It's totally antagonistic to academic achievement. It demeans students who try to do well in school. And I think it disengages boys from academic learning.

Q: When Michael Moore asked Marilyn Manson about the role of music in his film Bowling for Columbine, Manson replied that music wasn't to blame. The real problem was a media machine that promotes fear and consumerism.

A: Well, boys aren't just victims. They play a big role in this, too. They need to get off their butts, basically. It's not cool to take AP classes. It's a Bart Simpson culture. Underachiever and proud of it. Cool to be stupid.

And these are the guys who are going to keep living with mom. I mean male culture has just become totally anti-intellectual. The male cultural heroes and icons -- very few of them have a brain in their head. We glorify male idiocy. And young guys pick up on that.

Q: And then what happens to the women who may want to date those guys?

A: When you listen to women's groups, and they say there's not enough good men out there, they're right. There are fewer well-educated men than there were 20 years ago. And people tend to like to marry someone within the same educational class. Historically, women have tended to marry up.

Q: Now what do you think will happen?

A: More women will marry down, or marry younger, or not marry at all.

Q: What's your prescription then?

A: Men have to realize what women did. We have to go back and earn it. We have to start paying our dues.

BusinessWeek Online: It's a Bart Simpson Culture, see also the "Related Items" articles

Can money buy happiness?

Economic researchers quantify a 'happiness calculus'

So, you think money can buy you happiness and make all your troubles disappear? How much would it take? Researchers have taken a new look at that famous question and have come up with some answers that may surprise you.

TRY TO IMAGINE the possibilities. How about this: vacations in the Caribbean whenever you like? Or, wait, maybe Paris. How about a compact but very well appointed flat in London? Some good art, something by somebody with a name, like Van Gogh. And to go with your country place, horses or maybe vintage cars — why not both?

If advertising reflects what makes us happy, then, being rich would indeed make us very happy. And we all know money has a profound impact on us. Why else would we make money so useful for all these things, if it weren't to make us happy. And after all, all around America, a lot of people are working very hard to find out. Yet, you know what they say.

Wasn't it mother who told us money couldn't buy happiness? How is it possible, then, that money, something so banal, could create an emotion so profound?

"Every time you get a bonus, every time you get a birthday check in the mail, you sort of think about the little emotional kick that it gives you and you wonder how important money is in your life," says Jean Chatzky, who has pondered the question a lot lately.

Chatzky is an editor of Money Magazine and an NBC News contributor. She says economists have been studying our personal relationship with money much more intensely in the last few years. The research is exploding, tracking what makes us happy, using happiness surveys, statistical happiness spreadsheets, even inventing a new term: happiness calculus.

"It's an extrapolation," she says. "It's running the numbers to figure out if $30,000 makes you happy for X number of months or X number of years."

And by doing the math, some economists now claim they have found an answer to that old question, does money buy happiness?

"The real answer, according to economists at universities from Princeton and Harvard to Oxford is that indeed money can buy happiness," says Chatzky.

It's a finding that may come as a shock to mother or that warm puppy or the good people down at the Buddhist temple on the corner. It also begs another question: How much money does it take to buy that happiness?

This lottery commercial, where the people sing about winning $1 million, sugg