Commercials

Have you ever noticed that TV commercials seem to spend more time trying to pressure you into buying their product than actually telling you why you should? This is not really a new phenomenon, but it's one that I thought would eventually fade out as consumers became more savvy and less prone to pressure sales tricks. But that doesn't seem to be happening, and so I thought it was time to enlighten the reading public to how they are being manipulated by advertising.

The other night really clinched this for me. In just one commercial segment, I was yelled at by a guy selling a knife sharpener - and then by the same guy selling some kind of car product. Through both commercials he is literally bellowing at you about the product, making claims that the visuals seem to support (but we all know such things can be faked), and topping off his pitch by urging me to call "right now" lest I should miss out on his "incredible" offer. Nevermind that it was 3am, or that I've seen the same commercials for more than a month - indicating that they are not likely to run out of the product, or retract the offer, any time soon.

Right between these ads were two others - one for Hair Club for Men, and the other for some male "enhancement" product. (Okay, 3am is not prime time for commercials either, but some of these run during the day too.) The Hair Club ad really ticked me off. My husband is bald. So what? It doesn't bother him, and it certainly doesn't bother me. In fact, I love that I can lean over and kiss the top of his head without getting hair in my mouth.

But do the folks at Hair Club care that many bald men are quite happy with their appearance and don't wish to spend thousands of dollars trying to look like someone else? Of course not. In fact, they don't just hawk their products - they use their commercial to try and make bald men feel bad about their appearance. They don't come right out and say it, of course, but everything they DO say is geared toward making a balding man feel that he's somehow lacking in looks, manhood, confidence, etc. - just so he will pay them to restore the self-esteem they took from him in the first place.

The male enhancement ads do the same thing. They claim that their product will make the guy bigger, better, etc. Guess what? Size really does not matter. What does matter is what you do with what you've got. Big or small, a man's best tool for being a great lover is his own imagination and ingenuity - neither of which can be bought. It also doesn't hurt if he's actually interested in pleasing his partner, rather than just getting his own satisfaction and then rolling over for a nap.

Such commercials are pretty obvious in their aims, which are clearly to make the viewer feel that their life is incomplete unless they buy and/or use the product being sold to them. But mankind has survived for millions of years without the need for hair replacement, male enhancements, Viagra, a car wax so tough you can burn coal on it without leaving a mark, or a knife so sharp you can cut concrete with it. Our kids do not have to dress like supermodels in order to do well in elementary school, nor do they need a laptop, cell phone, PDA, and MP3 player in order to get through college.

We really don't "need" all the products being sold to us, no matter how much the advertisers try to tell us we do. At a time when Americans are sinking under billions in credit card debts - much of which was spent on products that the buyer was told they just had to have "right now", and that often do not live up to the hype in their commercials - isn't it time that we started pressuring these companies to stop wasting money on inane advertising that treats Americans like idiots and spend that money on improving the quality of their products instead?

What do you think?

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