Excessive advertising for fancy goods is a luxury we can't afford

By Pan Bei'er  |   2008-7-18  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

WHEN entertainment and advertisements define the major trend in public reading, we are seeing signs worthy of the highest alert.

The most typical cases involve the myriad entertainment newspapers and magazines that are increasingly defined by an overabundance of advertising for a luxurious lifestyle.

Go to any bookstand and you will find that many entertainment newspapers and magazines are becoming thicker and heavier, and printed entirely in color. In many cases, they're wrapped in plastic bags and wastefully printed on high-quality paper good enough for a book cover.

More than half the pages of some fashion magazines are stuffed with advertisements. They are more like a worthless collection of advertisements than a magazine.

But, strangely enough, these newspapers and magazines full of ads and fashion trivia are among the most popular with young readers, especially women.

And look at what they advertise: luxury cars, hotels, cosmetics, handbags and so on. The beautiful women and men in the advertisements seem to enjoy such an exciting life and have so much fun that they arouse emotional appeal among the readers.

The message conveyed is: you are fashionable and successful if you have this car or bag, and if not, you are old-fashioned and a loser.

Under such an environment, it is no wonder that many young people are willing to spend one or even several months' salary - or their parents' savings - just to buy a handbag.

Not all young people do that. But if you knew how frugal most Chinese people - young and old - were 20 years ago, the number of young women obsessed with fashion magazines, fancy bags or fancy bras would amaze you.

Neil Postman, author of "Amusing Ourselves to Death'' (1985), wrote: "Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business ... The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.''