The “branding” of America is the most insidious part of our culture. Now, entire personalities are subsumed into brands. Lebron James is a brand. Jerry Bruckheimer is a brand. Every supermodel and pop singer is a brand. There are few places you can escape logos such as the Nike “swoosh” or Mickey Mouse ears. The brands scream only two messages at us: “You’re not good enough,” and “Spend.”
Advertising is a huge reason why people don’t invest. Advertising is a shell game that sets us up for the quick thrill, eternal youth in a bottle, sex at the beach by drinking a brand of beer and buying a lot of things that do absolutely nothing for us. Instead of saving the money we would be spending on some gadget, vehicle, or wardrobe, we could be could be investing in our children and ourselves. Advertising is the deep end of the ocean. When we succumb and sink into it, there’s no bottom to the spending.
Turn Off the TV and Start Saving
The more TV a person watches, the more he/she spends (based on the advertising they absorb). Actual research by Dr. Juliet Schor from Harvard found that for every extra hour spend watching TV, the subjects spent an additional $208 per week. On average they spent an additional $2,300 a year in unplanned expenditures.
TV and Advertising distorts the view we have of ourselves. Advertising is designed to make you feel uncomfortable about yourself, your possessions, and everything around you. If you are perfectly secure and comfortable, then you won’t feel the need to buy the thousands of products being marketed.
Be Careful When Browsing the Internet
Personally, I use the Firefox browser with an Add-on called Adblock. What this does is prevent website ads from appearing when I visit sites online, thereby removing my temptation to buy some gadget I won’t have use for after two days of purchase.
The Real Truth about Saving and Spending
If you take away nothing else from this on cutting out the influence advertising has on your life, know this: If you spend less, you’ll quickly save more. I know this sounds like a big “duh,” but there is a powerful spiritual component to savings as well. Being in deep debt is a form of slavery-to your creditors. If you are working just to pay bills, you are shackled to what you owe. It’s a lonely impoverishing situation.
Mother Teresa noticed it when she visited the United States:
“There are many kinds of poverty. Even in countries where the economic situation seems to be a good one, there are expressions of poverty hidden in a deep place, such as the tremendous loneliness of people who have been abandoned and who are suffering.”
