Scenario 6-3 "Consumerism Is a Pattern of Behavior That Helps to Destroy

question 39

Multiple Choice

Scenario 6-3
"Consumerism is a pattern of behavior that helps to destroy our environment, personal financial health, the common good of individuals and human institutions" begins the first page on a World Wide website entitled "Overcoming Consumerism." It continues, "This site details ways that you can help defeat consumerism, save money, work less and lead a more satisfying and environmentally benign life while helping to restore the self-sufficiency of your community." (http://www.verdant.net/)
As one travels from page to page in the site, advertising is often implicated as a source of the movement toward consumerism. Many of the same criticisms of advertising found in the site were outlined in the textbook.
-(Scenario 6-3) One quote from the site reads, "Time, the shrinking commodity of our lives, is exchanged for money to buy things that there is usually little time to enjoy. What's left over is often devoured by television, basically a series of ever-more mediocre filler programs between ever-more spectacular commercials whose sole purpose is to stoke further desire for more things." To respond to the implication that advertising robs people of time, a proponent of advertising may logically argue that

• A) advertising actually saves time, because people don't have to search as hard to find information about products they desire.
• B) the extra time spent processing advertising is offset by increased enjoyment of the products purchased.
• C) most television advertisements contain a great deal of functional information.
• D) people go out of their way to see advertising; therefore, it must play a positive role in their lives.