Ramona on Commercialism

Ramona likes to keep up posted about products that she learns about on T.V. Whenever I am fumbling through my purse to find my keys she reminds me that I can buy a purse that has a place for everything, "You can even find things blindfolded for $ 29.95." The other night at dinner she told us about the Evert-Fresh "green bags." She flatly told us what she had witnessed (on T.V.), "Bananas in the green bag stay fresh for 10 days, bananas out of the bag get black and spotted."

We follow-up these info-sessions with anti-commercialism rhetoric. We talk about need and want and the fact that a purse with more pockets won't magically organize me and that we eat our bananas in less that 10 days so we don't need another thing to keep our bananas fresh (although that banana hook I got at Target years ago does help). She listens without a word. We talk at her about marketing and how people who make ads want to convince you to buy stuff.

The other day she and I stopped by the drug store to pick up a few things. We meandered into the shampoo aisle and she jumped to attention. "Mom, I know that all of these are from advertisements," she reported, using her whole body to indicate an entire shelf of one brand of shampoo. "I am sure they are from advertising," she repeated and pointed with concerned big eyes and raised eyebrows.

"Should we get that one Ramona?"

"No, Mom. They are trying to trick us into buying it," she mimicked.

Lesson learned. Neurosis born.