{"id":7353,"date":"2009-11-22T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=7353"},"modified":"2018-11-20T23:42:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T07:42:31","slug":"my-advertising-crash-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/my-advertising-crash-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"My Advertising Crash Diet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday, and in large part that’s because I spend\u00a0it camping in Terlingua Ranch and hiking, backpacking, or kayaking in Big Bend National Park<\/a> (about 15 minutes away from the ranch).<\/p>\n

I get mixed reactions when I tell people that’s how my family celebrates the holiday. Yes, we do have turkey \u2014 slow-cooked over a fire no less. Yes, we do bring toothbrushes and brush our teeth (no kidding, my dad was asked that question once). Yes, there are tarantulas, but they really just want to be left alone.<\/p>\n

Silence and stillness<\/em><\/strong>
\nBesides the canyons, river,\u00a0and wildlife, I look forward to the trip all year long for the silence and stillness of the biggest and least-visited national park.\u00a0I work in a largish city, and most days I feel bombarded by marketing and advertising. I turn on the news, and\u00a0I have to sit through\u00a0ads. I check my e-mail, and inevitably some retailer\u00a0is having a sale. I get free magazine subscriptions filled with ads. I drive and hear ads on the radio and see them on billboards. Sometimes it seems I can’t escape. (Even Get Rich Slowly has ads!)<\/p>\n

Reports and statistics vary, but\u00a0most agree that on average a person is exposed to hundreds of advertisements every day, if not thousands. According to a Federal Trade Commission report, children ages 2-11 see more than 25,000 advertisements each year on television alone, targeted with advertising on the Internet, cell phones, mp3 players, video games, school buses, and in school.<\/p>\n

We’re even forced to endure ads during<\/em> a TV show, as stations\u00a0run larger and larger animated graphics in\u00a0the corner or bottom third of the screen during\u00a0TV programs.<\/p>\n

There are studies and claims that ads make you fat,\u00a0cause you to take out payday loans for insane interest rates, lead to alcohol abuse, and essentially ruin your life. That might be true, but more important\u00a0than obesity and alcoholism concerns, I’m just tired of the noise!<\/em><\/p>\n

The advertising crash diet<\/em><\/strong>
\nThis week\u00a0I’ll have four blissful days of no one trying to sell me something. But rather than wait for Thursday, I decided to try an advertising crash diet this week.<\/p>\n

The advertising crash diet is my way of purposefully reducing the advertising to which I’m exposed. This includes e-mail, television, magazines, radio, and, at the end of the week, billboards. The point isn’t to save money, though who knows, maybe I will. The point is to\u00a0reduce sound and sight clutter from loud commercials, obnoxious jingles, and spam in all its forms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plan<\/em><\/strong>
\nI won’t try to avoid\u00a0ads completely, just reduce the amount of exposure in a few key areas.<\/p>\n