Emma Joenpolvi
I am a first year PhD Candidate in the School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations (AMPR) at QUT.
My research focuses on ethical consumer behaviour and the role of morality in the marketplace. I am interested in furthering our understanding about what drives a consumer to make ethical purchases and how brands communicate with their customers when faced with moral challenges. We are living in an unprecedented time and sustainability is a global challenge that we are leaving future generations to struggle with if companies and consumers are not armed with knowledge to change existing unsustainable consumption patterns. I aim to be a small part of that change.
Magnetic Field
(2020 - Mixed materials from household bins)
“When consumers make ethical choices, they do so with their moral compasses guiding their way.”
These are the very first words of my PhD thesis.
I believe that in every choice that we make as consumers we have the power to influence the future. Supply and demand is a well-known concept in any business and it’s driven by us, the consumers of goods and products. But how do we justify the choice of the products that we use? Do we use our moral compasses or do we find reasons not to?
This piece is inspired by the concept of morality in the marketplace. The materials used to make it were salvaged from my own recycling or rubbish bin – an old makeup compact holding the beer can arrows pointing between the cardboard cardinal directions drawn on old ink pens, mirroring back on itself.
Making this piece made me question my own consumer tendencies. Shifting through my rubbish gave me plenty of materials to choose from. I realised that even someone with a research interest in ethical consumer behaviour and sustainability can fall victim to the convenience of single-use or unnecessary packaging and overconsumption.
So it’s time for me to tune back into my own moral compass and question the consumer habits that have been ingrained in my psyche. I hope this piece gives you inspiration to do the same – electrifying a magnetic field of consumers making choices for the future.