Cheating on my Breakup

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

Consumption Diary

Breakfast: President’s Choice Peanut Butter Granola Bar

Lunch: Pizza Pizza cheese pizza

Dinner: No Name perogies  

Today’s Reflection on my Breakup

            So I am somewhat impressed with myself, I made it to the fourth day of attempting to avoid branding before “cheating.” Until today I have not bought or used anything that was branded except for those products or services that were unavoidable (refer to the list of unavoidable products/services in my life in the post “Breaking up with The Brand”).  Today, at about 8:00 am, I left my house in a hurry in order to get to school in time to write a short proposal before class. In my dash out the door to make the bus I only had time to grab a granola bar for breakfast. Come 1:00 pm after finishing my paper and sitting through part of my class I was starving. My stomach was grumbling and I started to get tired and dizzy (something that often happens when I haven’t eaten for a while). Since, it would still be a long time before I would be going home from school (at least 3 hours) I decided to buy something to eat.

            What to buy though? Well interesting enough deciding to buy something on campus meant having to buy something that is branded. Everything that one can buy on campus is either branded or at least some ingredients that are branded. Most of the food service locations on campus are in themselves a brand and package and sell their products under a brand name. These include Tim Hortons, Subway, Pizza Pizza and A&W. Even in the Cafeteria or Roosters where the branding is less obvious or at least where things are not sold under a big brand. Within the Cafeteria or Roosters the ingredients within the products they sell are branded. For instance, Roosters uses a particular brand of pitas, offers Kraft peanut butter and uses Mayo brand Mayonnaise.  It is likely that one could not order something from these places that would not include something that is branded. So in order to eat (and not starve) I had to buy something branded and go back on my “breakup” with brands today.

            I will acknowledge that what I have done here is to come up with a fairly elaborate excuse for why I had to buy something branded. It was in fact my fault that I had to buy something branded because I was not prepared enough while leaving for school today. What is relevant about this is that it shows the difficulty in buying only branded things. It is up to the individual to be prepared and to put in more time and work to avoid brands. It is not that society or companies make it easy to buy unbranded products. In fact, within spaces such as the university products or services that are not branded are not offered. Individuals, in conclusion, must “go out of their way” to consume generic or store bought goods.