Consume and Abuse

What i find interesting about many of the citizens of the proud United States of America is that we are filled with an unquenchable thirst to consume. Consume what you may ask? Consume just about anything our eyes lay sight upon. But that’s not the problem. The problem lies when people begin to take advantage of our indulgent habits making a large number of Americans feel obligated to purchase their products through insidious means of advertising and well planned out store front funneling. 

www.ikeafans.com/

For example, every time I walk through an Ikea the first thing i notice is that they have little post where a average Joe can pick up a pencil and paper to take notes with. They also strategically position many of their products into make shift rooms so a customer can get an idea on what products can satisfy and their little heats desires. They try to hard to cram every possible Ikea-inspired creation into almost every nook and cranny. But what i find to be the most hilarious is how they positioned an Ikea cafeteria just a little off of the entrance of the main hall way to where you can almost not see it. This shortcut also contains the fastest way out of the store. But wait, there’s more! Within the cafeteria they STILL advertise their products with kitchenware and even the food you can buy at the service line! They try to fancy us with frozen goods such as "Swedish meatballs" when they taste just like regular meatballs you can buy from your local Wall-Mart. And the gravy they use for those meatballs taste just the same as regular meatballs. But this is only but a skid mark of the "craftiness" of their products. 

photomars-stock.deviantart.com/art/Broken-Shelves

The merchandise you can buy has no better quality then the stuff you can buy at Wall-Mart. My sister not too long ago bought a expensive white clothing shelf thinking that it would help organize her room a bit for the long run. But rather then helping her problems it only created more. Only less than a month in, the shelf begun to fall apart piece by piece. It quickly lost its function and its worth and became a more than a headache than a Tylenol. And after examining the makeup of the product, i found out that the price my sister bought did not do justice to the quality of what she got. Its like they insidiously built their products with cheep faulty materials so a person can keep coming back to buy more and more and more and more of their products! But thankfully we realized that it was all a marketing ploy to suck our wallets dry. 

recomparison.com

What really grinds my gears to a bitter desolation is that many of these "A" class companies are doing the exact same thing as Ikea. They thoroughly plan out their great scheme by finding ways to lure their prey in. like a Angler fish with its bright luminescent lure, they use many types of advertising. But once they got your attention and you are unaware of the nasty jaws behind the lure, they snatch you in with their teeth and chew you for every last dollar. Because you know, a penny won’t allow you to purchase their overpriced, poorly made, uniformed products. And now it seems like they are not even trying! Their ads follow us almost everywhere we go, harassing us with tidbits of their knowledge. Such can be seen in the Internet. I'm truly guilty of this because before i even knew it tricky advertising got the best of me. 

undocumentmusic

When I was looking for a card to strengthen my deck on Amazon, they tricked me into buying more than what I asked for. It started with a click then along the bottom of the web page a stream of related items appeared. Rather than controlling myself, I quickly clicked on that next item. Then the process of click, add, and, buy became a joyous routine. Before i knew it I was way over my budget and many hours into the day. It’s like they knew that I was looking for and understood my needs and wanted to "improve" on them! They begun to mold me into the products they threw at me! Sadly, I basically said 'YOLO' and bought them anyways... now I know better. 

www.spring.org.uk

Conformism is individuality's arch nemesis, the bane of creativity and the fall of personalization. The other thing that these companies know how to do very well is force the populous to their terms and regulations. They insidiously place a seed within your mind and indoctrinate your being to buy "all of their stuff"! And from this seed sprouts the fruits of their labor and upon this fruit is the juice of order... their order. And with its bittersweet flavor, one will meld into what the company wants you to live. And by that point your house will be decorated with the products or their design, the clothing of their making, taste the things of their flavor, and ultimately become another mannequin within their mindless horde of peons. So if you feel that you have piles of clothes with one name brand on it and designing your living quarters with what you have seen in Ikea's next magazine, you might need to a self check and revaluate yourself unless you are the type of person who enjoys it. However there are those who want to live a life of freedom rather than chains.

www.frontpagemag.com/2010/jamie-glazov/to-fight-a-tyranny/

In the country of Iran there are people who want to share their ideas of fashion and creativity to the world. (Keep in mind that the new government of Iran is still a faulty one) However, they are being held down by an oppressive government that chooses to force creativity down the drain. Just imagine if you were jailed for expressing your own opinion. So next time if you notice that you are conforming to the terms and conditions of a one brand company remember that there are people who are fighting against the current and are willing to die for something different.