ABSTRACT
Heidi finds that a number of friends at the place she works share her concerns about the constant pull of new fashion. Zoe, an economics and environmental studies major, helps her put together a “fact sheet” that demonstrates that increased use of consignment fashion can bring large savings to shoppers, as well as important health benefits to the environment. Fact sheet in hand, Heidi drives to her local cable system with a request that they persuade E! and Lifetime to plug “consignment fashion” and use its own media-convergence activities to demonstrate the value of buying clothes that way. The community-relations manager listens politely to her complaints and her suggestion, but he never gets back to her. Zoe and Jim both hypothesize that a local cable system doesn’t have the motivation to plug consignment stores when it is interested in getting ads from local department and specialty clothing stores. The same may be true for the large cable networks, they realize.
