Consumerism (blog8)

R.Sweeney

July 28^th/2008

I will never look at another talk show again.  I always thought when I was watching Oprah, how lucky the audience was to get all the free stuff she was giving away that day.  I guess they are really lucky, but at what cost?  They are being bought, and taken advantage of by the big successful companies.  How poor does the average person or how rich does the big company monopolies have to get before enough is enough?  Will there ever be a point where the money making companies get tired of exploiting the common person and say, “ok, at this point I have made as much money as I could possibly want, or possibly use.”  My favourite type of talk shows were when they had a make-over episode.  I loved to see the before and after pictures and see how they were dressed?  I always knew that there was some degree of advertising going on when brand names were named and the products used were mentioned, however, I never really looked at the companies intentions.  Being aware that possible reasons for having these types of shows were to draw the lower income people back to consumerism is so wrong.  By tempting them by having everyone oohh and ahhh about their “new look”, and continually tell them how much better they look now that they are wearing make-up and are dressed for their body type, isn’t being fair to them.  Of course they want to look as good as they can but what if they have 4 children that need food and rent or a mortgage to pay for?  It is not right to put them in this type of situation and having them re-evaluate their values and finances based on aesthetics.