Bah-Humbug!

Once again, it’s the Christmas (oh wait, I’m sorry … “Holiday”) Season and this, of course, means it’s time to shop! At least that’s the messages that all these commercials are shoving down our throats; and I’ve noticed something a bit interesting this year – apparently the perfect gift to purchase your loved ones is a brand new automobile. I mean, come on, a fucking car – for Christmas!? Are there really that many people that can afford to actually purchase a car these days? I think not…

No … what these salesmen are trying to sell you is a brand new 5-year (often as long as 6-year these days) loan. Yeah, that adheres to the whole idea behind the gift-giving premise – “Here honey, I bought us a new $500 per month payment for the next 5 years – Merry Christmas!!” I mean do these car companies think we’re stupid enough to fall for that? So, perhaps you’re losing your house to one of those nasty little foreclosures this year; hell, why not buy a car for Christmas? That’ll fix everything…

Am I the only one that’s noticed this apparent large increase in “buy a brand new vehicle for Christmas” commercials this year? Perhaps this is just a southern California thing and it happens like this every year; however I swear that 1 out of 4 commercials (both TV and radio) are inevitably telling you that you really should purchase a new car (as a gift, mind you…) this year for Christmas. I can tell you this much – I won’t be doing that…

And another thing that’s been bugging me lately is this stupid iPhone craze. So far, I do not believe that I know anybody that’s purchased this “Tickle Me Elmo” for 2007; however the marketing campaign for this product is making it appear that it’s only a matter of time before not owning one will get you shunned from civilized society. The question I have for Apple is why do we “need” this over-priced cell phone (because that’s what it is – a cell phone…)? So, you can watch movies on it, play MP3s, and even surf the net – whipty-freekin-do! I can already do these tasks (with much higher bandwidth and clarity) using my home computer and home theater. It is most definitely my opinion that the only useful feature of this iPhone gadget is the phone – and I already have a cell phone that works just fine, thank you…

But I guess that’s just the way the American consumer appears to big business this time of year – lemmings that can easily be suckered into disposing of their hard-earned money on a bunch of crap that they don’t need. Yeah, go ahead and buy your wife that BMW; make sure all of your children receive their shiny new iPhones – it’s the best gift that these corporations can get.

Merry Christmas to all; and to all that buy an iPhone – get bent!

bis später,

Coriolis