I was just planning to pick up a few groceries. I wasn't in a rush and didn't have a list so I strolled the aisles. Food marketing is one of my nerdy pastimes. There's usually a few different categories at any given time that have a hot innovation followed by a 6-12 month frenzy among competitors or other new entrants.
A recent hot item in food has been healthy, pint sized, low calorie ice cream. A new brand called halo top paved the way for a new category and over the last year many new entrants in the category have taken to the shelf, at the expense of traditional half gallons.
So as I strolled the aisles of Safeway, I checked all the current hot areas of food innovation and grabbed stuff I needed.
By the end of shopping, I began to feel a little overwhelmed. Sad and unfulfilled. Judged. And yet, hopeful and inspired. It's an odd combination of experiencing many artificial emotions all at once with a mental exhaustion from being exposed to too many messages and decisions. It's the same feeling I get when I spend too much time at Costco or Target, or heaven forbid I go to the mall or the outlets.
The bombardment of messages, subtle but powerful claims on my self hood asserting that I am not good enough, that life is dangerous, that the world is depending on me to save if. Calories printed largely to remind me that I need to track them even before I purchase them. Pictures of well cooked meals with interesting ingredients, because I need to be healthy and interesting and trendy. Environmental messaging that reminds me we are destroying the planet. Organic, crunchy children's food to frighten me that I might be ruining my kids health for the rest of their life. I can't live up to the perfect mom, woman, human that these messages push me to self visualize. And so, guilt. I fail at life... And all I had planned to do was get some milk and flour.
Marketers prey on two primal human drivers fear and self-centeredness. By pulling these levers, they can get us to do anything. They know us, they know our desires and our insecurities. They know us, probably better than we know ourselves. And they talk constantly in the design of the spaces we visit, through the objects we own or encounter, and in every space that is up for bids including sometimes bathroom stall doors.
I bring this up as part of lent because today, I felt an overwhelm from all the marketing that pushed in direct opposition to the messages of faith.
Where faith says sacrifice, marketing says "you deserve it"
Where Faith says "trust God with your life" marketing says "Take control of your destiny. "
Where Faith says "be content with what you have" marketing says "more is better"
Marketing isn't lying exactly, most of these messages in isolation are good. We should be healthy and environmentally conscious and the like... but marketing puts us in a specific emotional state designed to create the impulse to purchase. It creates an anxiety or crisis within us that is only quieted by a decision to acquire some object or service. Sometimes we need that motivation. But, I think these days, marketing is so pervasive that we never unplug from it. So we always carry a small, subconscious crisis that can wear on our heart and drown out the small, but affirming voice of God.
I am whole and I am enough, even if I didn't have kale infused quinoa chips for lunch.
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