The Story of Stuff

Videos that go viral are generally funny, creative, but completely forgettable. Once in awhile, however, a video comes along that actually attempts to explain something about the world in a way that engages audiences. Fortunately some of those videos go viral. The Story of Stuff was created by Annie Leonard and a team of caring individuals in 2007 committed to making people aware of just how much waste was being manufactured on a daily basis. What started with one 20-minute animated video just over five years ago turned into a series of subject-specific videos with millions of followers including: 

• Story of Bottled Water
• Story of Cosmetics
• Story of Electronics
• Story of Change

The latest video, released last week, is titled The Story of Solutions and attempts to outline a strategy for getting people and corporations thinking in a new/better way. By shifting the economy in a more sustainable direction hopefully people can start to see that more is not necessarily better and that changing the game can be beneficial to each and every one of us. Below are two quotes taken from the website that sum up the ideas of the first and last video. 

"We have a problem with Stuff. We use too much, too much of it is toxic and we don't share it very well. But that's not the war things have to be. Together we can build a society based on better not more, sharing not selfishness, community not division."

"In the current "Game of More', we're told to cheer a growing economy - more roads, more malls, more Stuff! - even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting. But what if we changed the point of the game? What if the goal of our economy wasn't more, but better - better health, better jobs and a better chance to survive on the planet?"

 Read more: The Story of Stuff and watch all of the fantastic videos!