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Commercial Culture

Ruchira Shah | Wednesday 6th May 2009

Yesterday, commenter Moran Raviv mentioned a study he had read that said that individuals are exposed to over two million commercials in their lifetimes.

Now, I haven't seen this study so I can't really comment on its accuracy. But, I think most of us can attest that we are continuously bombarded with advertisements. On TV. On the internet. On the radio. Billboards. While waiting for the Tube. On buses. Even on the little doohickeys that you use at a supermarket checkout to separate your apples from someone elses apples.

Advertising is ubiquitous. And it has its effects on us. We begin to want things we don't necessarily need. We buy more than we can afford, from both a monetary and planetary perspective. We begin to view ourselves not as citizens, but as consumers.

All of this brings me back to the glorious Hannah Montana debate.

Jeff and I have discussed the merit or lack thereof of Disney's branded fruit in detail, but something we failed to discuss ... whether fruit should be branded at all.

At the risk of marginalizing myself as a puritanical scold, Jeff, I have to be honest, I'm not sure I'm super comfortable with this. Maybe it's drawing an arbitrary line in the sand, but when we live in a world where advertising is everywhere, aren't there some places that should remain commercial free?

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