Buy, buy!

The many "snapshots" in the USA Today newspaper can occasionally be thought provoking. A recent one showed the responses people gave to the question "what is the major influence on your purchases?" Not surprisingly, TV ranked #1. Interestingly, though, TV garnered twice the percentage of the response "item needed." In other words, TV made it twice as likely for someone to buy something as actual need for the product would.

And we wonder why we're awash in debt. How much of all this stuff DO we really need?

By the way, remember this the next time media moguls tell you the content of their products don't influence behavior. If THAT were true, those ads for the Super Bowl wouldn't cost companies over $2.5 million for 30 seconds of your time. If that short an exposure to beer and potato chips has such a responsive effect, imagine what all those depictions of violence and casual sex have done for America.