Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Ignore Commercials

When I was little, my mother started telling me to ignore commercials.  She would talk to me about this in Spanish, since that was her primary language.  She came to the USA when she was 20 years old and had me when she was 26.  She and my father decided to teach me Spanish and not interfere with my English.  In Spanish the word for advertising is propaganda.  Commercials were propaganda and should always be ignored.  Eventually I developed a healthy distrust of advertising.  My mother would tell me "They charge you more money, so you can pay for their advertising/propaganda."  I always keep that in mind when I shop and cast a jaundiced eye on heavily advertised goods.  I like generic and store brands for most things and small, or European brands. As long as the food isn't from China, I feel it's safe.  Also, the cookies I buy from Europe or Canada are not as sweet as those made here in the USA.   I also like my DVR.  If I weren't such a news junkie, I would get rid of my TV altogether.  But with a DVR, I can scroll through all the commercials.  Also I like watching TV on Demand.  Even though for the most part I can't skip the commercials, I have noticed that the ads are for much smaller companies and they are few.  Besides I usually read while I watch TV.

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