Give up your individuality for a free t-shirt?

Give up your individuality for a free t-shirt? EyeEarn.com ripped off an idea I had years ago, in fact there are probably a few who thought of it before I did. Essentially the idea I had was called Punk Ads, it was at punkads.tv which has long since disappeared. The point is I was already one step ahead of the game way back then, the difference between my t-shirt ‘billboard’ idea and EyeEarn’s is the power of chance opportunities and the world media - if you can manage to “borrow it” for a while. I’ll explain my alternative process once I’ve got you clued up on EyeEarn and why their idea will never work.

First of all the site is “powered by” SFI international, an enormous affiliate system that I never wanted to pay to find out exactly what they do or sell, simply because I don’t pay any company to provide me an income, only a service. It’s something I learned a long long time ago, if you can buy say some information that had the potential to make others rich, then it maybe worth the price, but here’s the basic rule. If part or even all of your monthly fees contribute to yours or someone else’s back-pocket then it’s MLM (multi level marketing). Recruiting recruiters to earn yourself an income is a bad idea and it all comes down to probabilities.

The guy who starts a successful MLM company is guaranteed success, perhaps a few of his friends as well, the rest will be lucky if they ever make that money back. It’s just a matter of confidence rather than choice, as with franchises, you have to weigh up the outlay for the letterheads, stickers, equipment, leads, but at least you should have a real product to sell, even if you do end up paying over the odds for wholesale prices. Sometimes a name can help, McDonalds and most fast food companies offer franchises, I’m not condoning junk food, I’m only pointing out that you do get a lease on a real building full of equipment and staff, a high street or mall location, and of course an extremely famous logo to pull the punters in. For all that expect to pay tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands for an established city centre giant. Read more

Plastic Tees - Coca Cola’s Plastic Fashion Stunt

Coca-Cola’s Plastic Tees

Is it a cynical stunt? Should we see these new Plastic Tees as the future of ecologically sustainable clothing? Wal-Mart stores across the USA will display Coca-Cola apparel created from recycled plastic bottles. They maybe colourful t-shirts but they aren’t so ecological after all, they have actually blended recycled plastic bottles with cotton and besides they give Coca-Cola a chance to extend their marketing reach even further! Behind the somewhat obvious slogans such as “Make your Plastic Fantastic” and “Rehash your Trash”, is a company desperately trying to “appear to” reduce its Carbon Footprint.

I have offered an alternative of my own, essentially free t-shirt designs for people to have printed or print themselves locally, on used clothing wherever possible. Recently I designed a t-shirt to spread the word for a political cause, i.e boycotting the Beijing Olympics 2008 and I offered this option as a way for anyone to be able to join in the protest.

My point is that corporations will never be green, it is not in their nature to be, they are profit hungry animals the corporations. Essentially as with all economic systems, expansion and growth keep the rich rich, decline reduces the value of everything including share ownership, corporate career advancement. I’m telling you most of this junk won’t be here in another decade or so. Imagine trucking a load of cans of Cola across the States in a few decades, imagine the fuel bill. If you can’t make it locally, forget it. Most plastic is formed for the purposes of packaging, and essentially image branded packaging. The most ecological path that Coca-Cola and all the corporate giants can take is closure. Read more

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