Consumer, Get A Move On
I'm adding Old Navy to my list. (This is a new list that I'm making up right at this moment but it's not so dramatic to start a list.) This is the list of retailers I will never shop at and will mock people I know for wasting their hard earned money at. It's their new line of commercials that broke me.
If you haven't been watching television you are probably more healthy and sane than I am, but you've missed the kick off of the Old Navy Christmas Advertisement Campaign. The commercials feature the stereotypical multicultural group ranging in age from maybe 8 to 40 but the forty year olds of course look like they are thirtyish if not in their late twenties. It is a group of perfectly shaped people with perfectly styled hair wearing gaudy neon sweaters that are apparently the nifty, trendy, in thing to have this shopping season. These perfect looking people are terrible singers, but that doesn't stop them from butchering a Christmas carol in the name of consumerism. The song basically tells us that yes they know its probably too early to start talking about Christmas, but hey you the viewer are a dumb consumer and if you don't get your hind end in gear Christmas will be here and you with out gifts will have to commit the terrible faux pas of giving money in lieu of a gift. So get your happy (explicative deleted) down to Old Navy and get them a crappy sweater that will get tossed in a closet and forgotten for a couple years and will either eventually be given to Salvation Army or some other charity and will end up either sitting on a rack on a thrift shop to be resold to college students, shipped over seas to third world nation and eventually into the hands of some poor person six years down the line, or as non biodegradeable landfill to be dug up by archaeologists a hundred years from now almost perfectly preserved.
The idea that I would be thankful for this insulting reminder to shop early and shop often almost motivates me to start some stupid mass email to be passed around work places snickered over and ignored. It could be all of one line: Old Navy, my brother called and he wants the cash. How's that for a simple meme to spread around in viral internet fashion.
While I'm crying about concumerism and youth culture (Why youth culture you say? Old Navy, like the Gap isn't trying to sell you clothes, but a youthful vibrant look. To shop here is to say I'm a trendy, happening, now sort of person) check out The recommended daily allowance at Mental Multivitamin. M-MV excerpts and links to Mark Edmundson's article "On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students." which I found to be an incredible insight into how quickly we are approaching a society much like the one in Fredrik Pohl's The Space Merchants.
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If you haven't been watching television you are probably more healthy and sane than I am, but you've missed the kick off of the Old Navy Christmas Advertisement Campaign. The commercials feature the stereotypical multicultural group ranging in age from maybe 8 to 40 but the forty year olds of course look like they are thirtyish if not in their late twenties. It is a group of perfectly shaped people with perfectly styled hair wearing gaudy neon sweaters that are apparently the nifty, trendy, in thing to have this shopping season. These perfect looking people are terrible singers, but that doesn't stop them from butchering a Christmas carol in the name of consumerism. The song basically tells us that yes they know its probably too early to start talking about Christmas, but hey you the viewer are a dumb consumer and if you don't get your hind end in gear Christmas will be here and you with out gifts will have to commit the terrible faux pas of giving money in lieu of a gift. So get your happy (explicative deleted) down to Old Navy and get them a crappy sweater that will get tossed in a closet and forgotten for a couple years and will either eventually be given to Salvation Army or some other charity and will end up either sitting on a rack on a thrift shop to be resold to college students, shipped over seas to third world nation and eventually into the hands of some poor person six years down the line, or as non biodegradeable landfill to be dug up by archaeologists a hundred years from now almost perfectly preserved.
The idea that I would be thankful for this insulting reminder to shop early and shop often almost motivates me to start some stupid mass email to be passed around work places snickered over and ignored. It could be all of one line: Old Navy, my brother called and he wants the cash. How's that for a simple meme to spread around in viral internet fashion.
While I'm crying about concumerism and youth culture (Why youth culture you say? Old Navy, like the Gap isn't trying to sell you clothes, but a youthful vibrant look. To shop here is to say I'm a trendy, happening, now sort of person) check out The recommended daily allowance at Mental Multivitamin. M-MV excerpts and links to Mark Edmundson's article "On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students." which I found to be an incredible insight into how quickly we are approaching a society much like the one in Fredrik Pohl's The Space Merchants.
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posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 2:31 AM
5 Comments:
There is this amazing documentary, by an Australian woman, about what happens to the clothing Americans give to the Salvation Army… and how those donations have directly influenced the death of the textile market in impoverished African countries. Oddly enough… due to our giving… whole industries, that employed thousands, and kept economies floating… have been closed. The name of the film slips me at this early hour… anyway… it is eye opening to see what happens with the excess of our consumerism. I’ll come back and post the name when I wake up... so to speak.
you can mock me
but i like buying my jeans from there
Cori - I know there are some books about the ravages the world charitable organizations are causing. AS I get more and more infuriated with the "Shopping Season" I'm sure I'll find moments to mention them.
Sheri - Go ahead ask how your butt looks in your Old navy jeans. Muahahahaha. I actually used to own a pair of their flannel jammie bottoms and they were quite comfortable. Good for all day lounging. But no more.
How's my ass look?
Ok So I was bluffing.
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