False Advertising

Whenever I put a video or DVD on for my daughter--who is now just more than three and a half--we almost always fast-forward the commercials and ads that normally proceed the actual program. We began this habit when we discovered that just because we felt the program was acceptable, we didn't always feel the same way about the preceding advertisements. This morning I put on a Peanuts cartoon (the perennial classic, Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!) on for her and when I asked her what the commercials were for, she told me, "They try and buy you stuff!" Now if only that were literally true! But she gets the idea anyway. Hopefully, then, she will continue to see advertising for what it usually is: a medium for fooling us into thinking that we need a specific product or service to be fulfilled or happy. And since there is no way any product or service can live up to its promises, pretty much all advertising is, in this sense, false advertising.