Use less useless stuff- 2

The Landfill Prize was launched in Britain last year with this stated objective:

"Thanks to modern high tech, we should now have all the gear we need to enjoy comfortable, contented lives. Our culture is easily capable of producing myriad consumer items that are durable, reliable and useful enough to give years of great service.

It's not like that, though. We're beset with messages that tell us that the stuff we've got now isn't good enough – that we need more stuff, that we need stuff that's somehow improved, with ever more extras and options. It's all got to be new, too, rather than, ugh, so last year.

We've got fixated on producing and consuming stuff that has no future. It's only there to take our money on its brief trip from factory to landfill.

Our instant scrap is becoming ever more sophisticated, complex – and planet-trashingly wasteful. That's why we're launching the first annual Landfill Prize."

Among the 2009 winners are the motorized ice cream cone, the digital electronic skipping rope and a fork that can automatically twist the noodles for you.

The nominations are closed. Otherwise, the item mentioned in this Reuters report would have eminently qualified. A dress that is designed to light up when the wearer’s mobile phone rings. No less. British fashion student Georgie Davies says that “the dress is designed to eventually be connected to the wearer's phone by Bluetooth wireless technology, so she can be alerted to a call even in noisiest of places. When you're in a pub or a bar, you can never, ever hear your phone"

Innovation in marketing is all about inventing new problems to fit solutions into.