First, I will fully disclose that I am not nearly as passionate about this issue as many people here. I live in the US, where it is against the law to sell fraudulently labelled merchandise of any kind, including handbags, but I cannot claim to share a strong belief on the issue of intellectual property.
I do not buy designer bags, I do not buy fraudulently labeled bags. I already own close to a half century's worth of bags, and keep probably under 10% of them in Current Rotation.
All of that is precisely why I am the ideal person to suggest sound and effective arguments against buying fakes to those who do have strong feelings, attitudes, opinions and beliefs on the subject of fraudulently labeled bags.
Every day, I see people on this forum express very sincere but frankly crappy, and even potentially counter-productive arguments against fraudulently labeled, or "fake" bags. I have some suggestions for some better arguments.
If you're going to do it, do it right.
Many years ago (you knew there would be a sentence that started with "Many years ago." I'll do it now to end the suspense) there was a huge TV, radio, and print campaign intended to persuade young people not to engage in recreational marijuana use.
It provided millions of people with a great deal of amusement. Marijuana, young people were warned, would do all kinds of terrible things. It would cause hallucinations ("Well sign me up then!" responded young people who had not yet smoked any marijuana.)
This is a classic example of a counter-productive argument, one that has the opposite effect than was intended.
All kinds of other horror stories were shrieked aboug marijuana, and these stories were not true.
The campaigns were of course a colossal failure in terms of decreasing marijuana use by young people, and they also guaranteed that no one would pay any attention to anything that was said about other drugs, including drugs that can be very harmful.
I see some of the same elements going on with arguments against fake bags. For instance this one:
Fake bags are poorly made and will fall apart.
This is a crappy argument because it is not true, to begin with. Sure, some fake bags are poorly made and will fall apart, but the statement above doesn't say some. It's making an unqualified and absolute statement about an article that is produced daily in the millions, maybe billions.
This is a HUGE industry. Fake bags do not come from just one source. There is not one company, FakeBagzzRUs, that makes them all! So absolutely everything about them, every aspect of their production, is going to run the gamut. Some of them, as noted, are indeed poorly made out of ****ty material. Others are not.
It is not only possible to pay hundreds of dollars for a fake bag that falls apart in a week, and pay ten dollars for one that lasts for years and still looks new, it is something that millions of people do every day. So to make such a broad statement: "Fake bags are poor quality and fall apart" is not an effective way to persuade someone who buys fake bags to stop doing it. The person who buys fake bags on a regular basis just might know a little bit more than you do about the insanely wide - and completely unrelated to price - range of product quality in the fake bag industry.
A better argument might be:
If your fake bag turns out to be poorly made and falls apart in a week, you might not be able to return it.
This argument is better because first of all, we are not saying ALL fake bags. There are people who sell fake bags who will indeed give you a new bag or even a refund, if your fake bag falls apart in a week. But in most cases, you can't return it, and in some cases, even if the dude on the sidewalk SAYS you can return it, that's not going to be easy to do if he's not on that sidewalk when you come to return your fallen apart fake bag!
So when we put that "might" in there, we automatically make ourselves sound more credible. Instead of ignoring the reality of the fake bag industry, we are using it to our advantage by emphasizing the risk of losing money. There is no guarantee about the bag's quality because there is no accountability. And there is no guarantee that you will be able to return it, even if it costs hundreds of dollars and falls apart in a day! And then you will have lost all that money. If you buy a fake bag, you risk ending up bagless and broke!
Fake bags are made in sweatshops/using child labor/under terrible conditions/in a country that you think may be unpopular with your audience or one that you just don't like
This is a crappy argument for two reasons. The first one we have already discussed. The fake bag industry is huge and the only statement that you can make that is 100% true of ALL fake bags is that they are fraudulently labeled.
The second reason this is a crappy argument is a little more sensitive because it can get into the area of beliefs. Some people have very strong beliefs about the conditions under which "real" bags are manufactured, especially the bags made by their favorite company, that bear the label they prefer.
And that country you don't like might be the favorite of the person who is thinking of buying a fake bag. You aren't here to argue about countries, you want to convince that person not to buy a fake handbag!
Because authentic bags are also a big industry, and even with things like accountability and standard policies and being real companies, the only statement that you can make that is 100% true of ALL real bags is that they really are made by the company the label says they are.
I'm not going to get into the whole mega-topic of the reality of how the world does business today. Suffice it to say that looking into the provenance of almost anything you use, from toothbrush to toilet tissue, from hairbrush to handbag, is not for everyone. However, that reality makes the whole labor conditions, etc argument against fake bags vulnerable to the counter-argument that the same labor conditions prevail here, there and everywhere. Which may be a valid point, but if your goal is to dissuade someone from buying a fake handbag, the last thing you need is to be caught up in a discussion of world-wide trade practices.
So don't even go there. And while we are on the subject of sensitive subjects, we might as well address another popular statement that is not really an argument but a combination of belief and subjective opinion.
Money paid for fake bags goes to people who disagree with me and/or policies of a country to which I have an attachment and with which I agree
It may not be phrased like that, but that is really the essence of it. Not everybody who buys fake bags agrees with you or your favorite country either! And they may not be too crazy about where the money paid for real bags goes, so don't let anybody lure you into that glass house.
Your goal is to persuade them to change their shopping habits, not argue about politics! Take a tip from the Purse Forum rules and just leave all that out of it.
Continued...
I do not buy designer bags, I do not buy fraudulently labeled bags. I already own close to a half century's worth of bags, and keep probably under 10% of them in Current Rotation.
All of that is precisely why I am the ideal person to suggest sound and effective arguments against buying fakes to those who do have strong feelings, attitudes, opinions and beliefs on the subject of fraudulently labeled bags.
Every day, I see people on this forum express very sincere but frankly crappy, and even potentially counter-productive arguments against fraudulently labeled, or "fake" bags. I have some suggestions for some better arguments.
If you're going to do it, do it right.
Many years ago (you knew there would be a sentence that started with "Many years ago." I'll do it now to end the suspense) there was a huge TV, radio, and print campaign intended to persuade young people not to engage in recreational marijuana use.
It provided millions of people with a great deal of amusement. Marijuana, young people were warned, would do all kinds of terrible things. It would cause hallucinations ("Well sign me up then!" responded young people who had not yet smoked any marijuana.)
This is a classic example of a counter-productive argument, one that has the opposite effect than was intended.
All kinds of other horror stories were shrieked aboug marijuana, and these stories were not true.
The campaigns were of course a colossal failure in terms of decreasing marijuana use by young people, and they also guaranteed that no one would pay any attention to anything that was said about other drugs, including drugs that can be very harmful.
I see some of the same elements going on with arguments against fake bags. For instance this one:
Fake bags are poorly made and will fall apart.
This is a crappy argument because it is not true, to begin with. Sure, some fake bags are poorly made and will fall apart, but the statement above doesn't say some. It's making an unqualified and absolute statement about an article that is produced daily in the millions, maybe billions.
This is a HUGE industry. Fake bags do not come from just one source. There is not one company, FakeBagzzRUs, that makes them all! So absolutely everything about them, every aspect of their production, is going to run the gamut. Some of them, as noted, are indeed poorly made out of ****ty material. Others are not.
It is not only possible to pay hundreds of dollars for a fake bag that falls apart in a week, and pay ten dollars for one that lasts for years and still looks new, it is something that millions of people do every day. So to make such a broad statement: "Fake bags are poor quality and fall apart" is not an effective way to persuade someone who buys fake bags to stop doing it. The person who buys fake bags on a regular basis just might know a little bit more than you do about the insanely wide - and completely unrelated to price - range of product quality in the fake bag industry.
A better argument might be:
If your fake bag turns out to be poorly made and falls apart in a week, you might not be able to return it.
This argument is better because first of all, we are not saying ALL fake bags. There are people who sell fake bags who will indeed give you a new bag or even a refund, if your fake bag falls apart in a week. But in most cases, you can't return it, and in some cases, even if the dude on the sidewalk SAYS you can return it, that's not going to be easy to do if he's not on that sidewalk when you come to return your fallen apart fake bag!
So when we put that "might" in there, we automatically make ourselves sound more credible. Instead of ignoring the reality of the fake bag industry, we are using it to our advantage by emphasizing the risk of losing money. There is no guarantee about the bag's quality because there is no accountability. And there is no guarantee that you will be able to return it, even if it costs hundreds of dollars and falls apart in a day! And then you will have lost all that money. If you buy a fake bag, you risk ending up bagless and broke!
Fake bags are made in sweatshops/using child labor/under terrible conditions/in a country that you think may be unpopular with your audience or one that you just don't like
This is a crappy argument for two reasons. The first one we have already discussed. The fake bag industry is huge and the only statement that you can make that is 100% true of ALL fake bags is that they are fraudulently labeled.
The second reason this is a crappy argument is a little more sensitive because it can get into the area of beliefs. Some people have very strong beliefs about the conditions under which "real" bags are manufactured, especially the bags made by their favorite company, that bear the label they prefer.
And that country you don't like might be the favorite of the person who is thinking of buying a fake bag. You aren't here to argue about countries, you want to convince that person not to buy a fake handbag!
Because authentic bags are also a big industry, and even with things like accountability and standard policies and being real companies, the only statement that you can make that is 100% true of ALL real bags is that they really are made by the company the label says they are.
I'm not going to get into the whole mega-topic of the reality of how the world does business today. Suffice it to say that looking into the provenance of almost anything you use, from toothbrush to toilet tissue, from hairbrush to handbag, is not for everyone. However, that reality makes the whole labor conditions, etc argument against fake bags vulnerable to the counter-argument that the same labor conditions prevail here, there and everywhere. Which may be a valid point, but if your goal is to dissuade someone from buying a fake handbag, the last thing you need is to be caught up in a discussion of world-wide trade practices.
So don't even go there. And while we are on the subject of sensitive subjects, we might as well address another popular statement that is not really an argument but a combination of belief and subjective opinion.
Money paid for fake bags goes to people who disagree with me and/or policies of a country to which I have an attachment and with which I agree
It may not be phrased like that, but that is really the essence of it. Not everybody who buys fake bags agrees with you or your favorite country either! And they may not be too crazy about where the money paid for real bags goes, so don't let anybody lure you into that glass house.
Your goal is to persuade them to change their shopping habits, not argue about politics! Take a tip from the Purse Forum rules and just leave all that out of it.
Continued...