None of us can say that we have escaped all manipulation of media and marketing. I did have a Dairy Queen Heath Bar Blizzard this summer, and a piece of pizza for breakfast is not beyond me. I'm not talking about sainthood or becoming a dull and lifeless person.
Just the opposite, in fact. I'm talking about coming alive. Choose what you let in. Honor and enjoy the stimulation of your senses but don't become their victim. Why should those tiny little taste buds get so much attention? Look at how much there is of the rest of you. Realize that in the end, it is up to you to control your appetites. Don't let other people keep you hungry. Don't allow people to make you want what you truly do not need and what, in fact, takes you further from true happiness. Make the commitment to start to spend time with yourself without your drug of choice, whether that drug is donuts, habitual e-mail checking, potato chips, or the remote control. Don't fear the discomfort of boredom and that pain of a breaking habit. Your life is waiting on the other side.
I know I sound like a counterculture ranting lunatic preaching from atop a park bench. Sorry about that. Really, I am, but I'm just disgusted and I resent the way we are manipulated and the only ones who can break the cycle of dis-ease, overspending, deteriorating fitness, and myriad other problems resulting from marketing and media assault are you and me, the targets.
I mean, what is not clear in the term "Target Market"? Somebody is aiming at you.
Isn't that just a little unnerving?
Article comments
1 - Franco
Laura,
I am impressed with your article. While so many want to blame marketing and corporate forces for their own weak personal constitution by giving into these forces, and cry for big daddy government to step in a stop the bad guys, you have rightly pointed out where responsibility truly belongs. I think food is a good example as a base example, which can also be applied to all of Americans runaway consumerism.
Thank you for offering your ideas for showing consumers, which we all are, how they can shoring up their individual constitutions and become more responsible.
2 - Laura Young
Thank you, Franco! I know my views may not always be popular because they represent a lot of hard work on the part of each of us. That's the "fierce" part of the Fierce Living feature. None of this is necessarily easy, but it is so, so important.