Ads to save the world

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Since we first got TV when our oldest son was 10 years old in the 1950s, corporate ads have proliferated. They still mount an appeal to greed, envy, and luxurious living. Female enticement has certainly not been eliminated as evidenced by the butt wobbling young things walking away from the camera or the plunging necklines at every turn. The airbrushed beauties with breast implants and tummy tucks create a false sense of reality for developing teenage girls, many of whom have been seduced into bulimia or anorexia in order to try to become the perfect, thin creatures created on film.

Ballooning ads for soda drinks are marketed to children when water is really the only hydrating liquid of merit. In every supermarket the pop and sugar cereal aisles are the longest, indicating that the ads are working. TV ads for jumbo hamburgers with all the trimmings are considered the standard fare of fast food enthusiasts. For those who have seen the light, there are salad menus available at last, but soda drinks and carbs still rule. Fortunately, cigarettes are not advertised in major newspapers or magazines but liquor ads abound. One glass of wine a day is supposed to ream out one's arteries if those who drink can limit themselves to just one glass.

Did I mention the ads, paid for by our taxes, enticing young wannabes into the military and subjecting them to possible injury and even death for increasingly questionable causes? Don't get me wrong. If our country were attacked, I would be thankful for armed service protection.

Regardless of the many ads tempting us into a life of luxury, my husband and I still live frugally and have saved enough to stave off poverty in our old age. Our taxes don't allow us access to free health care but our taxes subsidize many who must resort to Medicaid because there is no universal health care. And we all know that without it, many unfortunate people with severe health problems could not pay for medical care.

With billions earmarked for war, Medicare rules getting tighter, and profits dictating the bottom line in health organizations, the burgeoning 60-year-old population will find that caring for their aging parents may become a nightmare. They are squeezed between their own retirement and health issues, their children and grandchildren, and the failing health of their parents.

When election time rolls around, will these so-called baby boomers step up to the plate of responsibility and help to elect leaders who are willing to change our failing system which does not care for the sick and elderly and the young families struggling without childcare? Campaign ads that appeal to our sense of community and world cooperation would be a real breath of fresh air. It is certainly time that we stopped being seduced by ads that are not in our best interest. We have already succumbed to the health provider corporations and their scare ads that doused the first attempt to produce a universal health care plan in this country.

Are there leaders out there who can help us understand what we have to do to provide for all citizens? We have waited a long time for such leaders. Perhaps more of us need to step into leadership roles so that we can cease being a nation of citizen consumers led over the cliff by the political spin-doctors and ad makers of our time.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 935-8663.