Patagonia Releases 'Shitthropocene,' a Movie About How Much Clothing We Buy, Even From Patagonia
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To round out Earth Month, outdoor and lifestyle brand Patagonia wants you to consider how much clothing you buy. It may seem like a strange sentiment coming from a brand that sells clothing, but reflective marketing for sustainability awareness is a strategy the brand has employed for decades.
On Monday, April 29, Patagonia released the film aptly titled Shitthropocene, which is half documentary, half satire. It features real experts speaking about how we became a culture of mass consumers alongside ads poking fun at greenwashing campaigns.
"We live in this world where there is so much that needs to shift and change regarding climate and consumption. And we all know that we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we have a heavy, deep responsibility," Jenna Johnson, president of Patagonia, tells Teen Vogue. "The messages can often be overwhelmingly negative and pessimistic, and we wanted to take a different approach to be able to bring people into this conversation to educate, but educate them in a way that people could actually grasp."
Johnson admits that while she feels being critical and realistic is important, the film seeks to show it in a different light. "We really wanted to show the evolution of consumption and to do it in a way that hit people over the head with how ridiculous we as a society have become."
Johnson acknowledges “the cost of everything is so high right now that it’s very, very difficult”, which means investing into wearable products in the $100-$500 mark like Patagonia’s might not be feasible for everyone, “especially for those who are just getting out of school and just starting a job and all of that.”
However, she emphasizes this “behavioral shift” is one of the core messages of the film. “[Hopefully,] we can shift into a place where we may have to go without for a little bit longer to save up more money to buy that one piece, but then we’ll have it for 10, 15 years versus that moment gratification of dopamine when you purchase.”
In Shitthropocene, we see images of clothing waste piles alongside commentary about how quickly consumption grew based largely on trend marketing from clothing brands — perhaps ironic, as the video is ostensibly a marketing campaign for new products. According to Johnson, though, that is sort of the point. "Greenwashing is a topic we [at Patagonia] talk about a lot, mostly because loyalty, trust, and authenticity sit at the heart of everything we think about," she says. "And so we feel really committed to making sure we're giving as much information as we possibly can to our community and our customers, and then putting the power in their hands to ask questions, do the research, be really intentional in what they're choosing."
This isn't the first time that Patagonia has used this tactic to communicate brand values. In 2011, the brand famously took out a full-page ad on Black Friday in the New York Times telling people not to buy the jacket that was pictured. These publicity stunts are but a reflection of some of the brand's main initiatives, which include a commitment to Fair Trade production, innovating on products and textiles to make the brand less reliant on plastics – which the film highlights is both expensive and time-consuming. (And most recently, Patagonia committed to donating all of the profits after business costs to climate-focused organizations and initiatives.)
"We don't take ourselves that seriously, and we're very honest about the places where we fall down. We are not perfect," Johnson notes.
Patagonia, while a decidedly forward-thinking brand, is still making plenty of clothing every year and is grappling with a problem of microplastics that come from its products. "The more we can explain where we fell short, where we made a mistake, and then how we quickly tried to come back around to fix it or to do better, or in a lot of cases, some of the problems that we're tackling are large, systemic, persistent problems that we haven't found the optimal solution for yet," says Johnson.
You can watch the Shitthropocene trailer above and the full film will be on Patagonia's website and in select theaters around the country. (See if it's coming near you here.)
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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