talking about consumers today

Sometimes I get really miffed at how the people who write commercials try to portray us. With so many commercials for say household products or cleaning products in particular, we as a people are made to look like we never clean, are lazy & want everything to be disposable. Wow … is this really what we have become? Not me. And not a lot of people I know.

I am so tired of seeing one commercial after another trying to sell us, as consumers, some new fangled disposable or otherwise wasteful product.

Not long ago I saw a commercial for a popular brand of paper plates. They touted how strong they were, even better than before. They now will hold up to even the messiest of dishes you serve. How they would save you so much time after dinner (or other meals) by being able to just throw them away. No dishes to do! You can spend more time with your family. The average family … how many of them truly spend time together after dinner these days? Or after any meal? Why not clean up together? Teach your children how to clean up after themselves. Teach them that it’s not such a weird thing to know how to do dishes, or wipe a counter, or put away leftover food. Teach them not to be wasteful.

Is it really that hard to do a few dishes after a meal? Or if you have one, to load a dishwasher? I’m not one who loves to clean or wash dishes. But I am also not one to just be a part of the use & toss society we have created. It really doesn’t take long to either load a dishwasher or wash up those few dishes from any given meal.

So then … there is the trash. One company shows how strong their kitchen garbage bags are by stuffing them full, pushing the limits of the plastic the bags are made of. Then, a young child has the duty of taking this full bag to the trash can. It’s great to know the bag can handle being dragged, rolled & otherwise mildly abused on its journey to the trash can. We are shown the trash can in the garage … it has another bag in it! So we’re throwing a bag full of kitchen garbage into another bag lining the trash can? Huh? So, come trash day we’re tossing out a big bag full of smaller bags. Lovely. Not to mention how they are all better & stronger bags too.

All of it just frustrates me sometimes. Don’t create so much garbage to begin with & you won’t have a need for such a strong bag! Hmmm… maybe try using real plates instead of paper ones?

I also laugh at the commercials for paper towels. Well, actually I laughed at the commercial for the Sham-Wow chamois even more. The guy says something stupid like “you already spend $20 a month on paper towels …” Who in their right mind throws away that many paper towels in one month?? I know he’s trying to make a point on how much money you can save, but geez. All people hear tho, is save money. At any rate, hubby & I ended up buying a set of them recently. And they work great so far. I don’t really use them in place of paper towels, but I also don’t really use many paper towels to begin with. We use rags & towels for most everything most people use paper towels for. I will wipe grease away with a paper towel tho, if I’m like wiping out a pot or pan. Why did we have to become such a disposable society?

I could get into product packaging too. And single serving everything. Oh the waste!