How to be a powerful consumer
Friday, May 31, 2002 - 16:41

The other day there was a report on the telly about some Palestinian teenagers who have stopped buying American products because they don't want to support a country that supports a country that is their enemy.

I thought, good for them. I hope they make a difference. A wise man once said, and I paraphrase: we vote every day with the purchases we make.

I don't wear lipstick, but I do have a tube of Maybelline Moisture Whip in Earthy Taupe that I love to death. I bought that tube before I found out that Maybelline tests its products on animals. Last year one day I was at the store looking at Maybelline lipstick. The small angel version of me on my right shoulder said to me, "Good thing you don't wear lipstick. I wouldn't want to support the suffering of countless animals just because society tells me that I was born with lips that are the wrong color." The small devil version of me on my left shoulder (because left = bad) said to me, "Oh come on, one tube isn't supporting animal testing. They've already produced this, and if you don't buy it, it will just go to waste, and all those animals will have suffered for naught. Besides that, they were probably all long-haired cats, and you hate long-haired cats." The small angel said, "Just because some cats have long hair doesn't mean they're not nice. And there were probably short-haired tabby cats that were getting lipstick poked in their eyes. Do not buy this!" The small devil said, "You're almost out of Maybelline Moisture Whip in Earthy Taupe! Buy this!"

And so I bought it. And I've felt guilty about it ever since. And I've put it on probably twice. Well, actually maybe ten or fifty times. But it's not nearly as nice as it could have been if I hadn't known that some poor cat or dog had lipstick shoved in its eye because of me.

Since then I've tried to be a more conscientious consumer. Remember last year when I told you how much I love a certain laundry detergent? Turns out they do animal testing too. Thinking that a cat is getting laundry detergent shoved in its eyes is even worse than thinking about a cat getting lipstick shoved in its eyes. So, even though I totally loved the smell of that laundry detergent, I stopped buying it. Now I buy some earth-friendly laundry detergent called Lovely Green Earth or something like that. Maybe it's just called Earth.

BUT, before you start thinking that I'm all hoity-toity, I'm not. Because just last week I bought some Oil of Olay face stuff -- even though I knew that they do animal testing. Again, it was the small devil and the small angel duking it out, and the small devil won.

***UPDATE*** Maybelline "has carried out no animal testing on its range of products since 1989"! So I don't have to feel guilty about that lipstick! Unless it was made before 1989. But still, the Oil of Olay thing. I *am* a pretty bad person. However, I *have* stopped eating at McDonald's. Also, all this information I have about animal testing is from the internet, and the internet is not very reliable. But still.