Marketing Campaigns Become Our Desires

Big winner! This guy was the lucky person who was allowed the opportunity to buy the first iPad in China. His T- shirt reads "I BUY IPAD NO1"; I'd add it appears #2 as well.

I can't help but shake my curmudgeonly  old head whenever I see expressions of such sincere passion over buying a consumer product - like when folks around the world camp out the night before an iPhone release. It's crazy! And I suppose a testament to the effective marketing campaigns of Apple.

But it speaks to a deep and fundamental absence in so many people's lives - that they are so wrapped up in Consumer Culture that their desires are imported, created on Madison Avenue, and willingly incorporated into their very sense of SELF. To the point that I'm sure many are familiar with: You become defined by your social group (and yourself) by the products you own (or, conversely I suppose, don't own).

If I was an ad executive, I would light my fat cigar with a $100 bill everytime I saw a picture like this, and laugh, laugh, laugh all the way to the bank.

We become our delusions, and when the rush eventually fades away, and you're left with this gaping sense of "what's next, want more..." fret not: There will be another shiny bauble to get your temporary attention.