Three advertisements that say it all...at least to me.

[Raven]

It's been nasty weather in NH today (what else is new?) and I have been watching more TV than I usually do. There were 3 ads on this afternoon, one right after the other:

Walmart: Woman shopping with baby and toddler. Baby loses sock...Mom doesn't bother looking for it, just grabs a package of 8 from the rack. Toddler siplls a juice drink on her dress. No problem...Mom just picks out another dress from the rack.

I guess we all are just swimming in cash.

Discover Card: The ad basically says that "we are a consumer sociery...but that's OK when you have Discover Card. Don't worry, go ahead and spend.

I guess we are just swimming in credit.

Finally, a guy whose wife is forgetting things, a sister whose brother tells the same story over and over and an Aunt who forgets what she wants to get in the supermarket. The ad suggests that they all may have alzheimers and that they should be taking a particular drug for the disease.

I guess my generation will be swimming in alzheimers' meds when it's probably just old fashioned old age.

Watch the ads, folks, the advertisers are as bad as the oil companies and part of the comspiracy to put this country's good people into bankruptcy.

[Vinca]

1. Re the Alzheimer's, I'm betting all the crap prescribed for people

is causing it. Last week I heard women urged to take Viagra with their antidepressants. Keep 'em happy, horny and hooked. It's the American way.

[robinlynne]

2. I saw that discover ad yesterday and it made me sick to my stomach!

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. I watched a movie yesterday called "In Debt We Trust"

it was made two years ago and accurately predicted all of the terrible things that are happening in the economy now. I highly recommend it if you can find it (I got it on Netflix).

http://www.indebtwetrust.org/

[EFerrari]

4. The new viagara for women ads are running here.

They must think we're really stupid.

lol

[dbonds]

5. Credit = Slavery

You are not a good citizen unless you are spending money, even if you don't have it.

[tridim]

6. And if that fails, you can always buy Amway.

I still don't understand why a pyramid scam/cult is allowed to advertise on television.

[trof]

7. Find a copy of Vance Packard's "The Hidden Persuaders".

The Hidden Persuaders
Vance Packard's book The Hidden Persuaders, about media manipulation in the 1950s was a forerunner of pop sociology. It sold more than a million copies.

In The Hidden Persuaders, first published in 1957, Packard explores the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including depth psychology and subliminal tactics, by advertisers to manipulate expectations and induce desire for products, particularly in the American postwar era. It also explores the manipulative techniques of promoting politicians to the electorate. The book questions the morality of using these techniques.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Packard#The_Hidden_Persuaders

Eerie and spookily predictive.

[AsherHeimermann]

8. Comment from Asher Heimermann

The Wal-Mart ad drives me up the wall.

[Warpy]

9. Occasionally you do get truth in advertising

My favorite ad of all time was the goofy Enzyte guy on a riding lawnmower doing doughnuts in a front yard, talking about his house, his cars, his boats, his toys. "How did I do it? I'm up to my eyeballs in debt! Please help me!"

That ad said it all about the present economy when it came out about 5 years ago. I really wish they'd run it again.