We'll be right back after these messages...

I didn't realize until I stopped watching television on a regular basis just how much of a stranglehold advertising had on me.  I imagine it was even worse than I feared because I am one of the most gullible people on the planet, or maybe I just wanted to believe all of the claims put forth in those ads.  I was quite the trusting soul when I was younger.  Is this the toy that will make me the envy of all of the kids? I want it.  Will drinking this brand of soda (or beer, later on in life) make me cool and popular?  One, please.  Is there an invisible man living in the sky that sees all, knows all, and watches over everything I do?  Well ... we'll cover that in another topic, but I sure bought into it.

Nowadays, when I do have the occasion to see television, I watch the commercials and programs with a kind of bemused detachment.  Most of what I see doesn't make me desire their product, but instead makes me wonder who the hell falls for such ridiculous claims and ... oh yeah, a few years ago it would have been me.

Advertising has become less about showcasing a product and more about trying to convince you that by using this product, you will:

• Become popular and well-respected among your peers and others.
• Get laid, or at least become more desirable to the opposite sex.
• All of the above.

As a dorky little kid with very few friends, anytime something was advertised that held even the remotest of promises of popularity, I bought into it hard.  Maybe it was just a way of instilling a sense of conformity at a relatively young age in an attempt to make it routine in later years, but whatever it was, it worked.  And yet, for all of my attempts at seeking approval, I was still the dorky kid with very few friends and some version of the latest "cool" thing.

I'll feature some of the ads from those bygone days, along with personal reflections on what I was thinking when I first saw these items and whether or not I actually obtained them.  Maybe, in the course of doing this I can figure out why today's ads don't hold the allure their older counterparts did.  I think it's just because I've gotten more cynical and skeptical in my old age.