I spoke with a reporter the other day. She was looking for ways to fight the urge to shop. “My top tip is to avoid advertising,” I told her.
“That sounds nice,” she said, “but how do you actually do that?” I talked about how I used to read comic book blogs and participate in comic book forums, and how doing these things led me to increase my spending on comics. When I stopped visiting such sites, my spending dropped.
“Television is especially bad,” I told her. “I don’t watch much TV, but I did watch the Olympics. I hadn’t watched anything on TV since the Oscars last winter. I’d forgotten about all the advertising. It was mind-blowing. There’s no way a person could watch television day after day without having the commercials affect them.”
The reporter and I tried to brainstorm other ways to avoid advertising. In the end, though, I had to agree that marketing is so pervasive in modern life that we cannot hope to escape it. The best we can do is minimize its impact.
Advertising in real life
Since that conversation, I’ve tried to pay attention to the presence of advertising in my own life.
Kris and I visited some friends the other night. They had been mailed a “complimentary” issue of Town and Country magazine. I leafed through it while we chatted. “This entire thing is ads,” I said. “Ads for expensive Stuff. Even the articles are ads.”
“Look at this,” Kris said, leaning over my shoulder. “It’s a $2,000 sweater. Who on earth needs a $2,000 sweater? People read this and admire the clothes. Then they’re in their favorite store and they see a similar sweater for $200. They think it’s a bargain because they’re ‘saving’ $1800!”
(This reminds me of a true story, the details of which I’m about to mangle. My friend’s wife came home one day with a $700 purse. He was mortified, and insisted his wife return it. She did, but she came home with a $200 replacement purse. “I saved $500!” she said.)
Earlier this week, I picked up the latest issue of Esquire. This magazine, too, was mostly ads: ads for expensive watches, expensive cards, expensive clothes, expensive cologne. I’m not exactly a fashion maven, but even after a minute browsing the pages, I found myself coveting $2000 sweaters. Literally:
![[A $1,695 sweater from Esquire magazine]](http://www.getrichslowly.org/images/esquiresweater.jpg "Okay, so it's not quite $2,000 -- but it's close!")
Resisting the urge
Maybe that’s why I almost bought a bunch of clothes today.
This morning, I received a piece of e-mail from Filson. I’m on their mailing list because I love their clothing. I don’t have many Filson items — they’re expensive! — but what I have, I worship. I’ve always wanted a Filson shirt. Well, today’s e-mail featured a sale on “tin cloth” shirts. Perfect!
I clicked through to the Filson web site, picked a size and color, and added a shirt to my basket. Then I browsed the web specials. I chose a sweater, a pair of pants, and a hat, and added them to to my shopping cart. But as I walked downstairs to get my credit card, I came to my senses: I was about to spend over $200 because of an ad. Isn’t this exactly the sort of thing I preach against? If I hadn’t seen that ad, I would have spent $0, and been just as happy. I walked back upstairs, sat at the computer, and closed the browser window.
I’m not opposed to buying a $75 shirt — if it’s quality and will last a long time — but I want it to be a conscious decision. I want to buy the shirt because I need it, not just because I saw an ad for it.
Take back your brain!
This all reminds me of yesterday’s guest post about attentive spending. The power of marketing is a very real thing, and we, as consumers, must remain vigilant against its influence. Awareness leads to informed decisions. Two simple things you can do:
- Change the way you relate to advertising. Mute television commercials, ignore magazine ads, throw away junk mail. (Hell, use an adblocker at Get Rich Slowly!) More than that, try to inoculate yourself against ads. Notice your response to them. How do they make you feel? What message is each ad trying to convey?
- Spend mindfully. When you make a purchase, ask yourself why you’re doing so: “What is prompting me to buy this?” When I stopped to ask myself this question today, it was obvious that I wasn’t buying the Filson clothes because I needed them or wanted them, but only because I’d seen the ad.
If you really want to get fancy, check out the marvelous Take Back Your Brain, a site devoted to using professional marketing techniques to advertise to yourself. Take Back Your Brain is all about creating anti-ads, or ads for things you want to be and do. It’s brilliant.
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First, that is an incredibly ugly sweater. I don’t see how someone could part with $2k for that thing, cashmere or not.
Second, I also stopped watching TV. After a month you don’t miss it and you have a lot more free time.
Really though, the heart of the problem isn’t the advertising itself, it’s the fact that so many companies are creating “needs” and then bombarding us with all of these niche products. And not only that, but it’s gone modular. So you product A, and then you need products x, y, and z to use it.
Someone mentioned the swiffer wetjet above and that’s a perfect example. Completely worthless and designed so you have to keep buying replacement pads and solution. THEN, they bring out four or five variations – conveniently not compatible with one another – so not only do you feel like you need to “upgrade” to get the best type but if you’re not paying attention you accidentally buy a replacement for a different (and incompatible) variation. Frankly, I’d rather have a mop and bucket.
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Thanks JD for the great post, we have become so used to advertising that we don’t even think about it! I canceled my cable tv service 3 months ago and am amazed at how much less my kid have of the “I want its”. After sitting down and seeing what is being marketed to our kids, and worse yet I was paying for it! through cable tv!!! NO MORE!
I started a blog to now you have been such an inspiration thank you!!!
http://downwithdebt.today.com/
It is the little things that we do that make a difference. By being aware of the other forces that are pulling at the back of our unconscious thoughts.
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Boxboy suggested not wearing clothing that advertises brand.
I wish that we all had that philosophy.
IF we are going to advertise for them, they should GIVE US the shirt. We shouldn’t PAY THEM for the “privilege” of advertising their product.
We’ve got it all turned around! They want us to advertise for them (TOMY, Nike, American Eagle) in huge letters…give us the shirts, but please, don’t make us buy them!
I chuckle at our country’s gullibility when I see people pay big bucks so they can be a walking billboard for that company.
It kind of reminds me of Tom Sawyer getting his friends to whitewash the fence for him.
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I agree, that sweater is ugly.
Sisley has some lovely cashmere V-necks and cardigans at 90-100 euros…
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I dunno. I think you need to know yourself. If I go to a store bored, just to browse, I’m going to spend money. Not a lot but it all adds up to quite a chunk of change. If I leisurely page through In Style I don’t spend a dime and have satisfied my window shopping desires. I’m as frugal as my depressing-era Grandma when shopping online or by mail order. I just need to keep myself out of the shops.
PS – I only ever pick up Town & Country for the ads
They’re more interesting than the articles. Of course I also had parents that spent my entire childhood explaining how ads were manipulating us, that might have helped.
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I am immune to advertising. What gets me is when I have identified a “need”, such as wool leggings. Then I end up buying 3 of them, and while I’m at it, a tank top as well. Until I actually make the decision to buy something, I’m ok.
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what a great concept this take back your brain is. Getting married was my big aha! moment insofar as seeing through ads went- I’d get a wedding mag to get some ‘ideas’ and the ‘idea’ i was invariably left with was that I needed a $5,000 gown. Ha. I looked closely and saw that these things were ads from start to finish. I feel i am especially susceptible to magazine ads because they are “disguised” as “products the experts like”. I don’t buy mags very often. We don’t have a TV either, but since I’ve never had one, I find TV advertising to be almost comical. I see the ads and think , who would fall for this? People can’t possibly be that happy about disinfectant!
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Because of the influence ads have on us while we watch TV shows, would it be cheaper to purchase the TV shows on DVD after the season is done? An issue would be that some shows don’t come out on DVD. A DVR is probably an even better option, or just no TV.
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I wrote an article some time back, first published on the Dollar Stretcher website and now on my own blog, called “The Same Message….A Thousand Times a Day” about how advertising permeates our lives. You wake up to a radio or TV show full of advertising, your paper or morning news show is full of it, then there are the billboards, the magazine ads, the internet ads, the TV commercials, on and on. And most of us absorb this stuff with little in the way of critical thought. No wonder we’re a nation frighteningly and eternally in debt!
Cathy Sykes
moneytospare.net
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Thanks for this post. Quelling the urge to shop online is my biggest financial challenge right now. My e-mail is bombarded every day by sale announcements and coupons, and about half the time I’m intrigued enough to click through to the site being advertised and put something in my online bag. I don’t always buy (thank goodness), but I’d say I give in once a week. I always convince myself I’m saving money because I never buy full price and I use coupon and free shipping codes, but I know it’s a total fallacy when it’s something I would never have purchased otherwise.
I’m trying to be more mindful and to really ask myself the tough questions that have been recommended so far. “Do I need this or want this?” “Am I playing into this store’s hands?” I’ve noticed that I’m susceptible to the most obvious and sad forms of advertising, such as the tendency of retailers to label something as “the essential pant” or “the perfect t-shirt.” (I think “It’s essential! I must have it!” How dumb am I?). I also have stopped reading women’s magazines– they’re terrible for this kind of thing.
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C’mon, I like the sweater. You’re just saying that because it costs 2 grand, which is maybe 4 years of clothing budget for us all.
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I hate when people comment “I know why you’re saying it”.
No, you don’t know it coz you’re not in other people’s heads.
I sincerely dislike that sweater and wouldn’t buy were it cheap.
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I was actually astonished on my recent trip through Canada to see almost no billboards along the highway between Windsor and Toronto. It was surreal.
MN Scout, we watch shows on DVD almost exclusively now. That, and hulu.com, although that site DOES have ads.
JD, thanks for the article. I agree with other users about adblockplus, and use it all the time. I did end up signing up for a high-yield savings account through your site, so I don’t feel too bad about not clicking on any ads. That, and your other article about not clicking on ads.
Thanks to your honesty, I’m a faithful reader.
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We’re consumers. We’re by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty — these things don’t concern me. What concerns me is celebrity magazines, television with five hundred channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
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We have watched both the summer and winter Olympics on Canadian TV for years. Not only are there less commercial interruptions but for some reason the commercials are less annoying when they do have them. Maybe because many are for products/stores we don’t have in the U.S. or because we have never seen them before. The opening ceremony usually has no commercial interruption or very little.
They still show most of the American athletes and I find the announcers less annoying as well. They show a lot of events in ‘real time’ or at least a full 3 hours earlier than what we get from the American t.v. coverage. Plus it is nice to get a different perspective.
But I realize this option isn’t available to everyone.
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My Inbox is bombarded with all sorts of “Limited Time Offer-Free Shipping-30% off everything” type emails. Where once I would have looked, I just hit delete and send them packing. Not long ago, I would have jumped on the bandwagon and ponied up the credit card number right away. As I creep toward that magical half century mark of age, I have re-evaluated my perceptions of a lot of things. Advertising and keeping up with the Joneses were scrutinized and I have worked hard to avoid both. It can be difficult, but I am very happy to have made the progress that I have. I am largely happy with what I have. And my slowly shrinking debt load would agree.
Since I got my wife on board a few years ago, we don’t care too much what the meighbors have. Where I once would have felt a sense of deprivation at looking at some ads, I now often find a source of amusement. We have raised our son to use critical thinking on matters such as this, he’s 18 now and becoming a somewhat savvy shopper. As he heads off into the world, we can only hope that he keeps his head on straight. He is already way more prepared that I was at that age.
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I wonder a bit about people who claim that advertising has no effect on them. My worry isn’t that I’ll buy the $2,000 sweater, it’s that if I look at a lot of $2,000 sweaters I’ll end up buying an $80 sweater instead of a $50 sweater when I go shopping. Same thing with looking at $40k cruises – the amenities on the $2k cruise will look crummy by comparison. The problem isn’t that you’ll buy the luxury item, it’s that it resets your baseline and expectations about what’s reasonable.
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TV advertising is not such a big problem in Britain since the BBC has over 50% share and is advert free.
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I try hard to avoid as much advertising as possible. I have mixed feelings though. I am a painter and I sell art and promote it. I’m proud of myself for recently starting an innovative new marketing technique and I’m looking forward to my Christmas season sales. At the same time I deplore the obligatory gift giving and the way that advertising makes us want stuff that we don’t really need.
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Another Filson fan here! I got the double mackinaw cruiser (and the associated “sexy” hat). Not doing me much good in CA, but it was terrific in the midwest/east. I have not been able to persuade myself to buy any of the $75 shirts or any of the $100 pants though. Do they really last long enough to justify the price tag? (I kinda think of coats as durables good for 10-20 years and shirts as consumables good for 1-3 years).
What usually happens when I get tempted by email advertising is that I click through. Fill a basket while carefully calculating shipping cost (usually coming in right under the limit for the next step). Then I mull it over, decide I don’t really need it right now, and close the browser. It’s a grand waste of time
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We appreciate the kind words you shared about our product! Thank you.
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Another version of this is when they send you a 20% off one item coupon in the mail or e-mail. You feel like you have to “take advantage” of the discount. The reality is you did not save $20 off a $100 purchase but you SPENT $80 on something you did not plan to buy. Not to mention you might buy more than one item.
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Apple Mac have such good advertising that I love buying their products. Even though they are over priced they make me feel good and they help me run my business….meh
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I thought this post was good, but I couldn’t get over the fact that you were going to buy one shirt for $75. That would buy 3 of my normal button down, cotton/ polyester combos.
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It is especially important to teach your kids how to inoculate themselves against advertising. It’s disgusting how much money is spent targeting kids. I know families who choose to homeschool so their kids will have less exposure to pop culture and it’s exposure to advertising. When I taught 1st grade in a small district in CA, the language arts standards came up for review. Hands down, the parents on the review committee wanted curriculum dealing w/advertising added to the standards. It took the form of critical thinking. We taught the kids to look at every ad critically; to turn it into a game where first you try to guess what is being sold, then pretend to be the advertiser and guess what you are trying to get someone to buy. On the rare occasion when I watch TV with my 3 and 5 year olds, I mute the commercials or answer their questions about ads with, “they are just trying to get you to spend your money!”. I also try to give them a reality check; do you think that doll/toy/game will really make you stronger/prettier/have more friends?” It leads to good discussions
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CarrieK — that is a great thing to do, relevant not only to shopping but, perhaps even more important to scurrilous political ads, etc.
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Ed wrote: I thought this post was good, but I couldn’t get over the fact that you were going to buy one shirt for $75.
Heh. I usually buy my clothes at Costco or Goodwill, so this was way outside the norm for me. But I love Filson.
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“First, that is an incredibly ugly sweater. I don’t see how someone could part with $2k for that thing, cashmere or not.”
Yes, it is an ugly sweater. I wouldn’t buy it for $10.
$2000 for a sweater is ridiculous unless you are a multi-millionaire and this is pocket change for you. Sure I can afford it and even pay for it out of my paycheck without even touching my savings – I earn 100K+ and have no debt. But it’s just ridiculous. Even if it had been the most gorgeous sweater in the world, it’s not like it’ll last forever. Things get warn out, they go out of fashion, you gain weight, you lose weight.
As to cashmere – I bought a really beautiful cashmere sweater at Ann Taylor for $40. It is so much prettier than the one in the picture, and it is also 100% cashmere. I saw it first there when it was $90, decided that it is too expensive, thought it was still too much when it was $70, then $60, then bought it for $40 a month after I first saw it. If it had disappeared in the meantime – I’d thought “great, I saved money”.
The other day I saw another pretty cashmere jacket for $90. I didn’t buy it – both because I couldn’t bring myself to part with my money (I kind of love money… and yes, I have a credit card, but money is money). Also when you put on the thing it feels a little itchy – it’s a thing with wool stuff. Something that expensive should be perfect. I also couldn’t bring myself to spend $75 on a skirt; although it was also the fact that I gained a couple of pounds and size 5/6 was a bit tight whereas I didn’t want to buy size 7/8 out of principle. If it is still around after I lose weight I might consider it.
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My tips for avoiding advertising:
1) No TV. If you want to watch something download it (you quickly realise you don’t want to watch 80% of things you used to watch)
2) Firefox + Adblock Plus = Internet with nearly no advertising
3) Listen to public radio (you can get BBC, CBC, PBS etc. online)
4) Soma FM for music (donation driven)
My partner and I do all of these and find watching the Ads before films painful and watching TV is nearly impossible.
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After reading you post, I clicked on the provided link for Filson to see what you meant by an “expensive” shirt. You weren’t kidding. And then I noticed something. Underneath the shirt that I had clicked on, other similar items were displayed. Now this isn’t something new or unusual, but most sites, like amazon.com, usually advertise these products with the title of You may like, or others who bought this item liked, etc. Filson on the other hand advertised their similar products under the tag “You may also NEED…”. Really? I need these? I feel that this is completely off base and ultimately alienates me from wanting that product. What do you guys think?
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@cv: “I wonder a bit about people who claim that advertising has no effect on them. My worry isn’t that I’ll buy the $2,000 sweater, it’s that if I look at a lot of $2,000 sweaters I’ll end up buying an $80 sweater instead of a $50 sweater when I go shopping (…)”
Not necessarily. The trick here is to have a clear idea of how much an item is worth to you, basically, appreciate the value of money. This is why I think advertising has no effect on me in terms of make me spend more money than I want – having come from another country and having started in the US from nothing, I really appreciate the value of money. I wouldn’t spend $80 on a sweater – and earning 100K and having no debt, I can easily afford it – because a sweater isn’t worth to me as much as $80 in the bank.
Also, seeing really expensive items sometimes has a completely opposite effect on me – it prevents my buying a cheaper version at all. For example, I may see a really expensive jewelry item that I absolutely love, but wouldn’t buy because I cannot afford it or just don’t want to spend the money. Then I see something cheaper that I could afford, but it just looks so uninteresting in comparison, that I end up not buying anything at all. This is a pretty common situation with me, by the way: I don’t buy one thing because I cannot afford it (or don’t want to) and I don’t buy a cheaper item because after seeing the first one, the cheaper version looks pale in comparison.
Not to say that ads may not influence my decision – assuming I was already planning to spend the money. If I am already planning going somewhere on vacation and happen to see an ad for a cruise, and it looks good, and the cost is inline with what I normally spend on vacation, I may go for it – after considering it and comparing the cost/itinerary with other vacation possibilities. In this case, the ad may have helped me find a better deal.
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JD, I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot lately. I’m in Camp Bucca in Southern Iraq, with very little to do in my off time other than read magazines, which I never do at home. I read whatever people send me in care packages, many of which are “Glamour” and “In-Style” type magazines, the pages of which are essentially FILLED with ads. The magaines have articles like, “our favorite 100 cosmetic products” or “blue jeans you can’t live with out.” I am always yelling accross the room to my roommate, “Who needs a $2000 sweater?!?!” In fact, I think I did this yesterday. Very timely post for me!!
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I have always loathed ads as far back as I can remember. They disrupted my TV programs, wasted space in my magazines, and so forth. When I bought my first VCR I stopped watching TV in real time and FF-zapped the pesky ads. I have so many filters on my computer that using other peoples computers for web surfing is unbearable. In some cases web sites are 98% ads by volume without filters. Eek!
After TV went advertising-only a decade or so back (those logos count), I dropped it. No satellite, no cable, (semi-true, I have a limited TV service with my current cable company because Internet-only is more expensive, but I don’t watch it, my new provider for internet does not require a tied service, they’re due out in two weeks) I might have an old antenna somewhere, but it’s probably rusted into oblivion. DVDs and web-shows for me.
To me, advertising=fraud. I often make decisions based on advertising I’ve been unfortunate enough to encounter. If I can remember an ad about a product, I’m much less likely to consider buying it. I only get two magazines, one I pay for for the value of the non-ad content (about 25% of the pages) and one I don’t even bother to read because I did not subscribe to it. My telephone company paid for a subscription for me. I assume that it’s an ad-book, I haven’t actually opened one any farther than extracting it from it’s plastic mailing sleeve and chucking it in the recycle bin.
Sometimes, if I’m looking for something, I’ll look through a catalog that deals with that sort of thing and see if they have anything I can use. In that sense, advertising can sell me something, but only if I was looking for it at the moment the ad came by. I will usually run a web search when I am looking for something.
I freely admit to being a cheapskate. I need a reason to buy something. My reason, not the sellers.
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You’ve got it right, you have to avoid advertising – particularly for those things that push your buttons – like the plague. Some things that help me:
Listen to public radio or iPod in the car.
Always watch TV shows pre-recorded so I can skip through commercials…even sports.
Stay out of the malls unless you have a purpose…no aimless browsing.
If you must indulge in shopping do it online. Make a point of comparing all the pros and cons before buying. Often this is enough of a shopping fix that I don’t have to pull the trigger, or I’m unsure of what I really want so I wait a bit.
Buy online knowing that your purchase will be several days away from delivery. The anticipation can be satisfying, and you won’t buy on impulse like you might at the mall.
Avoid in particular advertising, magazines, or blogs for things you know you don’t need/can’t afford like (for me) new cars and new computers.
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I completely agree. Covetousness is a very real phenomenon that leads us to spend unnecessarily, and advertising leads directly and indirectly to covetousness. It really is true that if we just don’t expose ourselves to advertising, we’re just as happy spending $0. In fact, I’d argue that we’re in fact happier.
So kill your tv, get yourself off every single catalog mailing list, and stop reading “lifestyle” magazines. Stay out of malls. It’ll do wonders, truly.
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I have NO TV, no large paper just the local weekly with the grocery ads in it, and no magazines. Radio is a local rural station – smalltown – not a big city with lots of ads.
Therefore, it’s fairly easy to avoid most of the ads.
I ask myself – why in the world would I need that? And if I really do ‘need’ it, is there a less expensive option – which there most always is
Also a big subscriber to the “your money or your life” theory… meaning how many hours/days do I have to work to pay for this? Sometimes it’s just not worth it in time!
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Take it from a recovering shopping addict, it’s better to avoid advertising and replace “retail therapy” with low-cost entertainment. I have not given up TV, but I do mute commercials and regularly remind myself that nothing for sale can make me happy for long. I’ll watch Oprah when she has guests or topics I care about, but I never want to see another “Favorite Things” episode. Talk about an hour-long commercial!
One show worth watching is MadMen on AMC. By exploring the duplicity and hollow lives of 1960s advertising executives, it exposes the manipulation and greed that still fuel Madison Avenue. It’s an Emmy-winning drama, and even the product placements are vintage and therefore pretty harmless.
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Okay, so I admit I didn’t read all of the comments (there are 87!), but I am currently battling three major problem areas in my life: weight/fitness, finances, and clutter. Mostly to fight clutter, but with insulating myself from advertising (and spending $) in mind, I’ve been slowly unsubscribing from all promotional e-mails I receive. Even for reasonably priced, quality things (LandsEnd, for instance). I see a sale and think I’m missing an opportunity to save money, when in reality, I’m gaining an opportunity to spend (even if less than MSRP).
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I may spend a lot of time rolling my eyes – and I do – but I use advertising as a research tool. For the person who opted for a bucket and mop, bless you; it’s great if it meets your needs. I used a bucket and mop for years, and for me, the Swiffer Wet Jet meets my needs. And I’ll look at Vogue magazine once a year or so, because I love science fiction, but I’ll buy that $2000 sweater after someone drops it off at the thrift store because it’s lost a button.
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I can’t believe that as some suggest that I can’t enjoy TV, I have to cancel all my magazine subscriptions and that I can’t listen to the radio. How about people getting some self-control and call it a day? I think the last point in the post about spending mindfully is all that is needed. Yes, I’ve bought things b/c of ads, but I did so after weighing the pros and cons (pros: having it, cons: giving up money) and deciding if I really wanted it and needed it. I’m a woman, and I subscribe to 8 magazines with expensive items in them, but I only buy clothes maybe once a month, if that, and I only shop sales and clearance racks. Ask my husband – he’ll tell you I’m not lying! It can be done with some self-control. Setting spending limits also helps – I spend no more than $25 on a top (and I really have to love it to spend over $20), $30 on jeans and $40 on shoes. I’m not saying ads don’t affect everyone, including myself; it’s just how it affects people that’s the difference.
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