Global Mala Project Hijacked by Yoga Month
I was really excited last year to be a part of the Global Mala Project, instigated by Shiva Rea. The Global Mala Project had the intention to raise awareness and raise money for many worthy causes. I had volunteered last year and was looking forward to volunteering again this year.
Sadly, however, the community and grassroots vibe that seemed to permeate the first Global Mala Project seems to have been subsumed by a larger more commercial enterprise known as “Yoga Month.” The actual date of the Global Mala Project being overshadowed by “Yoga Health Festivals,” which are really just an excuse for vendors to show up and sell all their consumerist yoga gear.
Of course, there were vendors hawking yoga wares at last year’s Global Mala Project, but the overall goal seemed to be about the consciousness, the charity.
Yoga Month, and by extension, the “Yoga Health Festivals,” has a decidedly corporate, marketing feel to me. Oh, the website claims it’s about charity, but I’m dubious when the charity involved is one that is marketing yoga to kids under the guise of getting people to be healthier.
Don’t get me wrong – yoga has wonderful health benefits. But I’ve got a nose for BS and I’d guess that the financial rewards reaped by large yoga companies is their primary motive here, not making the world a better place. Getting kids sucked into an expensive yoga lifestyle is a good way to create new lifelong customers.
Yoga is a very big business now. Profit-driven yoga companies such as Hard Tail, whose exploitative, sexualized ads aren’t any different from what you’d find in a fashion magazine, aren’t necessarily any more “conscious” than a regular company, except that you can at least use their products to hit the mat. Granted, there are a lot of conscious, capitalist companies that strive to be more environmental and aware in their business practices, but that does not negate the fact that at the end of the day, they are still profit-driven.
Keep that in mind when the yoga marketing machine directs its sights on you.
I absolutely agree. i was also disheartened by the retail, conspicious consumption vibe where exhibitors were hawking everything from probiotic drinks, Kaballah Center books and my favorite: the woman who sounded like some kind of cosmetic laser carney, as she kept shouting, “never shave again”. I was also really disappointed when I contacted the Yoga Month people to get a list of events going on at local studios around the city to list on my blog (I knew the studios were required to register with the Yoga Month folks probably mostly to direct their donations to them) and was told, they’d get back to me. Needless to say, they never did. The marketing machine is alive and well….