Materialistic Americans Essay

â€Å"With these words I can sell you anything† by William Lutz and â€Å"At sale at Old Navy: Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies! † by Damien Cave the readings explain how Americans are fooled into purchasing so many unnecessary things that most of the time don’t do what they promise when advertised as well as how the buyers themselves are blinded and don’t realized that they are wasting money, all because of the value of their pride and their need to be better than everyone else yet they are doing the same things as millions of other Americans. Although it seems correct that most people should be materialistic, it’s not a good thing because this form of living is damaging American’s values in many ways and advertisements are just making it worst. In Cave’s excerpt he explains how most Americans have become so materialistic now and that it’s becoming a big issue. In one part Cave says, â€Å"Consumers are being scammed, says Klein, arguing that stores like Old Nave and Ikea are duping millions, inspiring mass conformity while pretending to deliver high culture to the masses† (109). This explains how Americans are so gullible when it comes to buying products because most of the time they don’t really look into what they are buying they just want to own what everyone else has because that makes them â€Å"fit† it into this materialistic society because it’s all about hierarchy and who’s on top of everyone else. â€Å"Klein and Frank say that few consumers recognize just how conformist their consumption habits have become† (Cave 109). Some people do realize that they do over spend but they still don’t do anything about it because they always want more. There are many adults that think that buying so many things for themselves and their families is good because people always want to have the best things that are out there for their loved ones without realizing that they’re just giving money away to things they don’t really need. â€Å"At virtually every opening of Old Navy’s and Ikea’s stores-in the New York, Chicago, and San Francisco areas, for example- tens of thousand of people appeared in the first few days. Even now, long after the stores first opened, lines remain long† (Cave 110). Americans value so much their pride to be over achievers and be better than everyone else they come across but yet they aren’t much different from other people because they spend as much as every other person who might not have that much money because everyone’s values are similar. In Lutz’s excerpt he explains how Advertisements usually don’t promise what they offer and take people for fools but yet people keep buying more. He states, â€Å"The biggest weasel word used in advertising doublespeak is ‘help’† (114). He explains how people are manipulated into buying products all the time that will help them with a desire objective and they are influenced by the advertisements. The things that people wear, drink, eat, etc are all influenced by something or someone, how else did they ever hear or see about those products. Advertisements are everywhere, people that see all these advertisements of products think those products apply to them because they know everyone else that will see them will want them too and they don’t to feel left out in not being part of the revolution of that product. Lutz also says, â€Å"Whenever advertisers want you to stop thinking about the product and to start thinking about something bigger, better, or more attractive than the product, they use that very popular weasel word, ‘like’† (119). American’s values are on risk when it comes to advertisements because people want their families to be well and grow a certain way, but that can’t happen when their television and billboards selling things that are out of the comfort of some people. Only by becoming an active, critical consumer of the double speak of advertising will you ver be able to cut through the doublespeak and discover what the ad is really saying† (Lutz 120). Americans value so much their pride and the liberty to do whatever they want that they think buying so much stuff applies to them. Americans also value their Independence in this country but it’s also being ruined by advertisements because how can people be independent when they are buying the same things as everyone else and are being exploited all at the same time? If people keep getting sucked into buying every little thing they see hey will doing the opposite of what they believe in, they will just be shaming who they are as Americans. Americans need to realize that buying everything that is advertised isn’t doing them any good. they will lose so much money on things they don’t really need and all for what? to be better than everyone else? People have forgotten about being independent and doing their own thing when it comes to having a different lifestyle from others. How can they take pride in themselves when they are just alike to everyone else and that’s what the readings explain, to not be gullible when it comes to this topic