Commercials
I have been taken by some commercials lately - and not in a good way. I'm kind of astounded and dismayed by the messages companies are sending to their desired targets, about their desired targets. A sampling...
"We are a nation of consumers" - Discover Card
"and there's nothing wrong with that...problem is, there's just so much cool stuff, we just get carried away." (okay, I admit it, I did have to go YouTube the commercial to remember anything beyond the 1st line.)
That's right folks, it's not your poor impulse control or inability to set a budget & stick to it that has caused you to be in such deep credit card debt (along w/ most of your credit card-lovin' countryfolk). It's just that there are too many cool things, too many temptations, and how can the average person possibly resist?! You must have everything you want when you want it, no lines, no waiting. God forbid any of us take responsibility for our ridiculous spending habits. (And yes, I have my fair share of consumer debt, but I'm not pretending that it's not my fault or that it's beyond my capabilities to not get myself in the hole. It is my fault, and I can be consumer-debt free, been there, done that, will do it again.)
"Leave breakfast to the experts" - McDonald's
Have you seen this one? People burning their bread to charcoal black in their toaster, ripping open the bag of cereal and spilling it all over, and various other breakfast disasters. Better just go buy the new breakfast chicken sandwich at McDonald's, because you are obviously too incompetent to make a decent meal for yourselves that early in the morning. Heaven alone knows how it is that I have successfully managed to feed myself breakfast nearly every single day since I was in elementary or middle school, without burning down the house or getting food all over my clothes or throwing food all over the floor. I must be much more talented than I thought!
"Underwater your plants & they look like this. Overwater, and you may end up with a big mess..." - paraphrase from the Aqua Globes automatic plant waterer
Really, people, is it that difficult to water your freakin' plants? Is it so much easier to put water in this glass bulb & push it into the soil? Just pay some attention to your plants! It's not rocket science. Or if it is more convenient, that's fine, but don't let them tell you that you're too stupid or inept to actually keep your plants alive the old-fashioned way. It's really not that hard, I swear!
Seriously, how did the world ever get along and continue to survive when we are obviously such complete idiots? We can't manage our debt b/c there's so much shiny stuff out there, we can't feed ourselves in the morning, we can't even water our plants without making a disaster out of it. Grr...
(And my thanks go out to my senior-year English teacher, Mrs. Erdos, for opening my eyes to the many underlying, unspoken messages of the advertising world. It's a great defense against the mega-machine that is consumer culture in America. And might I suggest reading Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine? It's a good exploration of what happens when you don't go buy anything but the essentials, an experience I resonate with after 4 years in seminary & not having any money to buy much more than the essentials!)
"We are a nation of consumers" - Discover Card
"and there's nothing wrong with that...problem is, there's just so much cool stuff, we just get carried away." (okay, I admit it, I did have to go YouTube the commercial to remember anything beyond the 1st line.)
That's right folks, it's not your poor impulse control or inability to set a budget & stick to it that has caused you to be in such deep credit card debt (along w/ most of your credit card-lovin' countryfolk). It's just that there are too many cool things, too many temptations, and how can the average person possibly resist?! You must have everything you want when you want it, no lines, no waiting. God forbid any of us take responsibility for our ridiculous spending habits. (And yes, I have my fair share of consumer debt, but I'm not pretending that it's not my fault or that it's beyond my capabilities to not get myself in the hole. It is my fault, and I can be consumer-debt free, been there, done that, will do it again.)
"Leave breakfast to the experts" - McDonald's
Have you seen this one? People burning their bread to charcoal black in their toaster, ripping open the bag of cereal and spilling it all over, and various other breakfast disasters. Better just go buy the new breakfast chicken sandwich at McDonald's, because you are obviously too incompetent to make a decent meal for yourselves that early in the morning. Heaven alone knows how it is that I have successfully managed to feed myself breakfast nearly every single day since I was in elementary or middle school, without burning down the house or getting food all over my clothes or throwing food all over the floor. I must be much more talented than I thought!
"Underwater your plants & they look like this. Overwater, and you may end up with a big mess..." - paraphrase from the Aqua Globes automatic plant waterer
Really, people, is it that difficult to water your freakin' plants? Is it so much easier to put water in this glass bulb & push it into the soil? Just pay some attention to your plants! It's not rocket science. Or if it is more convenient, that's fine, but don't let them tell you that you're too stupid or inept to actually keep your plants alive the old-fashioned way. It's really not that hard, I swear!
Seriously, how did the world ever get along and continue to survive when we are obviously such complete idiots? We can't manage our debt b/c there's so much shiny stuff out there, we can't feed ourselves in the morning, we can't even water our plants without making a disaster out of it. Grr...
(And my thanks go out to my senior-year English teacher, Mrs. Erdos, for opening my eyes to the many underlying, unspoken messages of the advertising world. It's a great defense against the mega-machine that is consumer culture in America. And might I suggest reading Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine? It's a good exploration of what happens when you don't go buy anything but the essentials, an experience I resonate with after 4 years in seminary & not having any money to buy much more than the essentials!)