Linda Jean Kenix
"There are still a lot of chances for alternative ways of
conceiving of culture and meaning in New Zealand."
Linda Jean Kenix
Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences
The ability to unpack the meaning behind advertising is key to understanding our relationship with consumerism, and as convener for a course called ‘Advertising and Cultural Consumption’ (Media and Communication), Dr. Linda Jean Kenix has an excellent understanding of the attraction of glossy pictures and smart wordplay. It used to be her job to come up with that sort of imagery.
Having previously held jobs in publishing, Linda Jean was a student in her late 20’s when she was offered a position with a full time salary in an advertising agency. “I worked in advertising when I was in the States to pay my way through grad school and I have to say I loved it. I was always very disdainful of advertising, for obvious reasons, but I decided to give it a shot, and I loved it because of the people who worked there.”
“Everyone was a wannabe something”, she says, and notes that they would have preferred to be writing screenplays, novels, or making art, but had got “stuck” in advertising: “They were really fascinating, interesting people and that really carried me.”
However, as a media student, Linda Jean was also being asked to question the industry in which she worked. “I was studying so much about the effects of media in terms of all these theories, and how culture had shifted over time, and about the impacts of those shifts”, she says. “Obviously big questions – so I left advertising.”
“I only lead into that to say that after people take my course they always come to me and say ‘I used to really want to go into advertising, and now no way’. And I’ve been thinking more about that, because now, my goal is to get people who are passionate about advertising into advertising, so that they can change advertising.”
Now happily settled in Aotearoa, Linda Jean is able to compare our environmental task with that of the States, and she believes that it is still possible for New Zealanders to halt our drive towards American style consumerism, and even turn it around.
“There are still a lot of chances for alternative ways of conceiving of culture and meaning that you don’t see in the States, and you don’t see in the UK, because that ship has sailed.”
Linda Jean notes that the current task for those countries is to retrench and shift paradigms about importance and values, but that it is a “much harder ask because once you’re invested in that kind of system it has it’s very strong – yet false, I would argue – but very strong rewards”.
She says that whilst such rewards may inevitably prove to be quite damaging and difficult for people, “in the short run they’re very satisfying and that’s a hard thing to go against”.
Linda Jean misses her friends in the States, but notes that many of them are engaged in a high level of consumerism and that they feel “justified in what they do, because they’re within a system that completely supports that, and if you have a different perspective on that then you are certainly on the outside, so it’s a hard ask”.
Recently, there has been some hope that an economic downturn might force a change in habits, but Linda Jean says that in the US, where “consumerism is the religion”, recent research shows that the recession is “building anxiety and stress because people are so dissatisfied that they don’t have what they want now. Products are now further out of reach than they were before, so it’s not necessarily readjusting anybody’s ways – it’s having an opposite effect. Instead of shifting around the paradigm and thinking about what’s meaningful and what’s not, people are shifting down but still looking up.”
Linda Jean is more hopeful about Aotearoa’s chances of achieving a societal shift away from consumerism, because at some levels “there is at least discussion around sustainability”. However, she notes that there is still a reluctance to identify politically with the Green movement.
“When you talk to people about ‘how do you behave, what do you feel passionate about, what do you do in your own house?’, they’re far more – particularly compared to America – far more sustainable in practices and beliefs, but once you start talking about it in terms of political ideology they get all spooked, and go ‘oh no, I’m not a damn greenie’. I think that whole thing is fascinating. It’s a big identity issue for the Green Party.”
On a personal level, Linda Jean, her partner and their children are committed to reducing their consumerism, but she admits that they struggle to be sustainable in all areas, especially when it comes to international travel.
“Everybody has their personal struggles – and researchers need to be really cognisant and appreciative of the fact that one size doesn’t fit all in terms of sustainability. I mean, my partner and our kids, we love to travel and that’s a huge thing, and we’re thinking ‘how can we do this in a way that is right?’”
Teaching the function of advertising to students – who may go on to promote greener living in ways that really catch on with mainstream society – is perhaps Linda Jean’s most significant contribution in the drive towards sustainability.
“Products need to be marketed to some degree for simply informational purposes, but there’s so many different ways you could go about that, and it’s not coming from top down, so it has to come from the bottom up if it’s going to change.”
Linda Jean also believes that when it comes to change, Aotearoa could be world leaders. “There’s hope here”, she says.
Profile by Sharon McIver