The defective consumer says: Eat your vegetables
Posted in Minimalism on September 2nd, 2009 by Christiaan – 1 Comment
Everywhere you look there are commercials, influencing us and trying to convince us to buy the next best thing out there. Where this used to work on a massive scale it’s now getting more and more personal with even directly addressed ads showing up on your doormat and tons of spam in your mail.
Not a single day goes by without coming under this influence. But there is a consciousness developing all around. People start to become insensitive to ads.
Just today I discussed this with a few fellow students. The perfect example came up. A “pop-up” stating you are the gazillionth visitor to a site and you just need to click the ad to claim your prize.
But what is this was a real prize and not a scam? Would you see the difference? I sure wouldn’t. Those pop-ups are just to common. As a consumer we’re starting to become defective. The ads are loosing their grip.
The dream
Well, so far the fantasy. Fact is that ads still work and sucker people into buying all sorts of things they never knew they needed in the first place. We’re also lead to believe that buying certain things will make us popular and grant us superstar status. Dream on kids, super star status comes from eating your vegetables, it’s not about what you own. So eat up and become a superstar.
Although I present a weak case here it’s just as likely that you reach stardom through your stomach as reaching it through buying that latest thing. We just don’t realize that very often it seems. I’m fond of my veggies but don’t want to become a star, I’d rather stay relatively anonymous. Thankfully there is no guarantee I’ll reach stardom through vegetables.
In my last post I talked about a problem with humanity, we’re lazy and if we can find a way around thinking for ourselves we’ll take that path.
Actually all it takes for ads to loose their grip and rendering you defective as consumer is to think for yourself and not to believe everything you hear/read/see. Smoking won’t make you an attractive cowboy, rough around the edges. Buying that latest fitness thing won’t get you that flat stomach. Or in the extreme department, taking that pill won’t make certain body parts bigger overnight.
Ignorance is what ads thrive on. Stay awake and think about things, before you know it you’ll be defective and on your way to saving a lot of money on useless stuff.
Now remember to eat your veggies.
