You rarely see advertisements, which give facts, technical specifications, and an explanation why some product is going to be useful for you. Instead, marketing people prefer to make annoying appeals to emotion. Advertisements tend to be made with the assumption that buyers are irrational, impulsive, and their emotions are easy to manipulate. I’m long since used to marketing people underestimating my intelligence. Most of the time their appeals to emotion are just annoying. Occasionally, however, they get outright disgusting. This is one such example—people are told to be ashamed for not buying some crap.
I found this piece of paper in my mailbox some days ago. “Kauns nepirkt” translates as “shame not to buy” or “be ashamed for not buying.” “Izpārdošana 09.-12.05.” means “sale from 9th till 12th May.” “Tikai 4 dienas” means “only four days.” “Galleria Riga” is the name of the shop. “Pilsētas centrs” means “center of the city,” “Dzirnavu 67” is the address of the shop. “Restorāni 7. stāvā” means “restaurants on the 7th floor.” “Stāvvieta zem Galleria Riga 1 st. bez maksas” means “parking spaces under the shop are free for one hour.”
This isn’t the first time I’m writing about advertisements that disgust me. Nor is this the first time I’m writing about shaming other people. Society pressures people to conform to whatever the majority is doing, thus it is only reasonable that marketing people want to exploit human desire to belong and be like their peers. Blatantly shaming us for not buying some crap, however, goes a step too far. Unfortunately, it’s also sort of unnecessary—many people already feel ashamed for not having bought the latest “new stuff” or some “essential” status symbol. This advertisement is a rare example of customers being directly told to feel ashamed for not having bought some stuff, but a more subtle version of the same message is ubiquitous, it has fully permeated our entire culture.
Personally, I firmly believe that this message is very wrong. Humans work long hours to earn lots of money to buy stuff they don’t really need to impress people they don’t even like. What for? Does this even make us happy? I don’t think so. It only makes us anxious, and unhappy. It results in our homes being cluttered with too much unnecessary stuff. It robs us of our free time. It creates lots of waste and pollutes the environment. And what for? Just to keep up with the Joneses? Conspicuous consumption and striving to obtain status goods only makes people worse off. It’s a rat race that hurts everybody and has only losers. It results in everybody getting stuck with an exhausting and repetitive lifestyle that leaves little room for enjoyment and relaxation.
This shopping center, Galleria Riga, mostly sells clothes. Some years ago, I used to buy my clothes in shops like this one, because I felt that buying clothes in second hand stores was shameful. I imagined that only poor people bought already worn clothing. (See? That’s indoctrination in action.) The first time I entered a second hand clothing store, I was surprised to see that most of the items they had for sale had no visible signs of wear, they looked completely new. Some items even had all the tags on them; not only did they look unworn and new, they actually were completely new. There are people who don’t even wear a significant portion of all those clothes they buy. I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining—other people’s wastefulness results in me getting nice second hand clothes for pennies. I will complain anyway, though—I don’t like witnessing conspicuous consumption that results in humanity trashing the planet and making ourselves unhappy in the process, I don’t like pointless consumerism.
At the time of writing (May 2019), if you open the English version homepage of this shopping center, this is the banner you will see prominently featured there:
I’m sort of perplexed by the text in this advertisement. If I don’t need anything, then why should I even go shopping? Weren’t advertisements supposed to encourage people to go shopping rather than remind them that they already have everything they need? Anyway, this is a message I can actually agree with. I really don’t need anything, I don’t need any more stuff, and I certainly won’t be buying anything from a store that tells me to feel ashamed for not buying their crap.
The English photo shows a woman with fingers crossed behind her back. This means it is ok for her to tell a lie. This means she is lying. This means whenever anyone says they need no more, it must be a lie. This means everyone else is buying stuff right now, and lying to you. This means you should go buy stuff now, so you won’t be shamed by being tricked by the rest of society, who are all out buying stuff and lying to you about it. It would be a shame if you were so naive as to miss out on buying when everyone else is buying at Riga Galleria, right now. Go!
I wasn’t aware of the crossed fingers being a sign for lying. Thanks for the explanation.
Now that’s a really bad message: “Whenever some person claims to be happy with their life, it’s a lie.” Ouch. In the Western world most people already have more stuff than they really need. Being content with what you have and enjoying life is a healthier mindset, it allows people to just be happy instead of being always stressed and striving to match your neighbours in spending and social standing.