Emotions for sale

Do you know Labubu, this little monster with rabbit ears and with sharp teeth? This Chinese figurine, which hangs everywhere, has become a global mascot. The plush comes in countless outfits and styles, which you only discover once you buy the box blind. Even more than the figurine itself, this is what makes it successful: the excitement linked to its acquisition, followed by joy or disappointment depending on what the packaging contains.

This type of consumption, called “emotional”, is far from only affecting young people. We see this as Valentine’s Day approaches, where advertisements change their tone. It is no longer a question of praising, as at Christmas, the usefulness or pleasure of a product, but of monetizing emotions to share, feelings to offer. The value no longer resides so much in the object to be acquired as in the feeling it provides and transmits. A recent study conducted by the Paris Fair confirms this trend: it is now the purchasing experience itself and all that it means that the majority of French people are looking for.

Give value to experience rather than objects could it be the solution to relieve us of the countless possessions that clutter our daily lives before polluting our soil and our oceans? In addition to its ecological advantage, this mode of consumption would favor lasting feelings, focused on sharing and relationships.

Let’s not dream! As with our electronic devices, business logic has every interest in favoring the obsolescence of emotions, the satisfaction of a fleeting desire which, once satisfied, will encourage people to return to the checkout as quickly as possible. Labubu is proof of this: to get around the frustration of not finding the expected figurine, consumers buy them by the dozen and devote a significant part of their budget to them. The avatars of the little monster with sharp teeth crowd into homes, while at the other end of the chain, the factories that manufacture them exploit their sometimes minor workers without qualms.