I sometimes keep the TV on while I’m working around the house – it serves as background noise while I’m folding laundry, cleaning bathrooms, or unloading the dishwasher. I mentioned a while ago that I am learning the value of a little more silence in my life, but the truth is, I sometimes enjoy having some adults talking in the background when I’m home all day.
I’ve noticed a trend. Interspersed throughout many shows in the morning are ads for our local ambulance chasers “personal injury lawyers.” The commercials drive me nuts. Every single one of them is focused on how they can get me lots and lots of money for all the pain and suffering I’m enduring after I tripped over a rug (because I probably wasn’t paying attention), or some other such nonsense. And every single one of them ends with a rousing proclamation that goes something like this, “Let me help YOU get ALL the money YOU deserve!!”
Ugh. I cringe just thinking about it. (I also wonder how the lawyers in those commercials can look in the mirror, but that’s a post for another time.)
Other commercials – those for retail products, for example – have a more subtle approach, but the message is the same:
“You deserve a whole lot more than you are getting; you shouldn’t be satisfied with what you have; you should go after more, more more — more stuff, more time for yourself, more personal satisfaction, just plain MORE.”
As a disclaimer, I’ll be the first one to confirm that I “need” occasional “me-time” in order to function at peak efficiency. I also love to pick up a new book or go out for dinner occasionally. So I’m not saying that “all material things are bad, all time to yourself is selfish, and we should all be living on peanut butter and egg salad.”
But really, do we need constant encouragement to think about “me, me, me”? Do we need any help in being selfish, greedy, materialistic? I don’t know about you, but for me, those temptations are right under the surface most of the time anyway. I don’t need commercials to make me think about myself or what I’ve convinced myself that I need.
But wait, you say. Those commercials make you cringe. You recognize the blatant materialism in them – therefore, you are immune to their ploys. Well… while it’s true that hearing “You deserve a break today” may not convince me to run over to the local McDonald’s, I can’t say that I’m immune to the theme of the commercials. How many of us can hear the same message, over and over, all day (week…month…) long and not have it affect us?
We pay attention to who our kids play with – after all, if they spend every spare moment with the foul-mouthed troublemaker, some of that is bound to rub off. We set limits on what movies we will or will not see, because we don’t want to be saturating our minds with garbage.
So why should commercials be any different? How wholesome is it to allow messages like “It’s all about you” or “You need more” or “You deserve everything you want” to drip, drip, drip into our consciousness continually?
I’m glad for Tivo, because it lets me skip over all of these ads, but I’m also reminded that it doesn’t hurt to clean the house with some great music in the background and to just leave the TV off a little more.
Girl, I could have written this post myself! I can’t STAND those lawyer commercials–hubby and I cringe every time we hear them–and commercials in general make me sick. And now my girls are starting to parrot some of the stuff from what they hear on TV commercials. I’m really, really ready to just say forget it and throw out the TV!
I hate having the tv on just for the commercials alone. My kids have grown up knowing that we will switch commercials. The Victoria Secret ones are the ones that really get my goat.
Good for you for putting on great music rather than just stuff. Great music can transport your spirit and lift you up and if it’s worship music it can help you get that moment with the Lord that all busy mom’s of little one’s never seem to have enough of.
I find that listening to our pastor’s sermons on tape or CD are nice (I miss a lot with a baby–you probably know what I mean)
I also love listening to books on tape. I just listened to a children’s book that Chilihead had recommended in her blog from your fall into reading. My daughter enjoyed it too!
Great post! I think we often think that we are immune to those messages as adults, but we are fooling ourselves. Thanks for your excellent blog. I have been reading it for a while, and I enjoy it so much. Your Fall Into Reading Challenge was great, and I look forward to participating in the spring. Thanks!
You know, Katrina, I think the thing that bothers me most about the commercials is that they seem to assume we’re idiots. Honestly, even I could probably work in the TV ad industry and I’m no great writer.
My current favorite is the ditz who stuffs her hair.
I leave my TV off until I know a show I want to watch is coming on and even then, getting through the commercials makes me cringe. (We don’t have DVR.)
Oh, those sleazy lawyer commercials. There are some local ones that are just pathetically hilarious, with the poor good-looking lawyer looking more and more exhausted in each new ad.
I don’t like having my tv on as background noise, either. It really bothers me!
That is so true. I have to say that I too like tv as background but it annoys my hubby and he really won’t let me when he’s home. If he is home he will turn it off. He grew up without a tv….
You know those lawyer commercials are the same all over the place. I went from VA to MN and found the same “So-and-so “the hammer” So-and-so” but with different names! LOL The same guy was doing the commercial but just did it with who knows how many different lawyers names for different regions! I move from east coast to mid-west and still can’t escape the annoying commercial.
But I really need Peanut Butter and Egg Salad, and besides that I deserve it.
The commercials that get me are all the diet commercials…ESPECIALLY the one where the girl says “I used to be a size 10 and now I’m a size 2″. Since when did a size ten become unacceptable? Are they preying on the women who struggle with size issues or what? If our fascination with sickly-skinny celebs wasn’t enough, now we have commercials indoctrinating us, making us think a size ten is big enough to order some diet package!
Okay, deep breaths…climbing down from my soap box…
Me, I listen to music during the day…
Katrina,
we stopped watching t.v. a few years ago, (we rent video from time to time tho). Now, when I am over at my parents, who have t.v.’s in every room and most are on all day…the noise, worldliness, and mind-mind numbingness of it just assaults my senses when we visit. I used to have ours on for background noise too, long ago. I guess we just get used to it somehow. You are right, it seems to be a undercurrent of thought that you deserve whatever you want…
thank you for sharing your thoughts with us,
Jenny in ca
Katrina,
It is funny you say that as me and my wife were just talking about the same thing the other day. I like to listen to talk radio, and need the background noise when we are cleaning or just playing with the kids. (I know, NOBODY needs background noise when playing with small children, but I have 7 siblings, and noise was a part of life)
I have stopped playing the talk radio for the same reasons and have stuck to a great local Christian music station. It is great to watch my daughter stop, listen to the music, then dance. When I see her do that, I don’t have the heart to tell her that Daddy was raised Baptist. Oh, well…