Items the advertisers try to convince us are essential

vivw_2
vivw_2 Posts: 2,230 Forumite
edited 26 April 2011 at 7:40PM in Old style MoneySaving
Over and over again we're bombarded with advertising - on the tv, in magazines and newspapers and even through our letter boxes. But are these vital to our existence? I think not. For example we don't need to buy bottled water - what is wrong with filling a water bottle from the tap? And all those different cleaners - how is limescale in the bathroom different to that in the kitchen?

What items that the advertisers try to get us to buy, can you do without?


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Comments

  • Lazy_Liz
    Lazy_Liz Posts: 181 Forumite
    Just off the top of my head, air-freshners, what is wrong with opening a window or cleaning up the area that pongs? Most of the solutions to remove smells from fabrics (you know the one) only work for a day or two, better to find a way to really clean the offending article.
    Oh and surface cleaners, I am not about to perform surgery in my kitchen so hot water and washing up liquid will be fine for most messes. Also all those germs they go on about, most of them are harmless!
    "doing the best you enjoy, not the best you can tolerate, is truly the best you can do sustainably."
  • Bean_Counter
    Bean_Counter Posts: 1,496
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    Lazy_Liz wrote: »
    Just off the top of my head, air-freshners, what is wrong with opening a window or cleaning up the area that pongs?

    Air freshners was the first thing that came to mind for me too.
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  • quintwins
    quintwins Posts: 5,179
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    edited 12 April 2011 at 12:22PM
    i agree with airfreshners, but also tumble dryer sheets, there really is no need, and colour catchers if you sort your washing properly


    altho if you had tasted water out of my tap you would buy bottled water, it acually runs cloudy and still tastes horrible once filtered
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  • Ellie83
    Ellie83 Posts: 525 Forumite
    The motion activated soap dispenser..... Yeah, it has germs on it, but the first thing you do after touching it is washing your hands... So what's the point? What is wrong with washing the bottle once in a while if you are afraid of germs? :D
  • Sassers
    Sassers Posts: 1,303
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    For me its the `new' colour schemes that come out in home design magazines almost on a weekly basis. And the bl00dy nic-nacks, fabrics, rugs, candles, cushions etc that go with it! And the `from America' obsession with `dirt'....the one that really makes me laugh are the quilted, moist aloe vera-type of loo rolls....nothing wrong with good old value in my house!
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  • All this germ-fear advertisers stir up makes me quite cross. We don't need antibacterial hand-soap just like we don't need anti-bac wipes for the kitchen. Good old common-or-garden soap and hot water will kill most of the germs we want to get rid of. If we're worried about things being completely unsanitary a bit of diluted disinfectant on a clean cloth would be about twenty times cheaper. Some of these advertisers must think we're all morons.
  • spadoosh
    spadoosh Posts: 8,732
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    vivw wrote: »
    Over and over again we're bombarded with advertising - on the tv, in magazines and newspapers and even through our letter boxes. But are these vital to our existence? I think not. For example we don't need to buy bottled water - what is wrong with filling a water bottle from the tap? And all those different cleaners - how is limescale in the bathroom different to that in the kitchen?

    What items that the advertisers try to get us to buy, can you do without?


    O the irony. Could you not do without a tv, magazine or newspaper? and thus eliminate most of the advertising you wish not to recieve?!
  • spadoosh
    spadoosh Posts: 8,732
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    ill let you off with the letterbox you probably do need one of them though it is normally pretty obvious which are important and which arent.
  • Sassers wrote: »
    The one that really makes me laugh are the quilted, moist aloe vera-type of loo rolls....nothing wrong with good old value in my house!


    You are a person after my own heart: I cannot conceive of why some folk pay upwards of fifty pence a roll for printed, scented and embossed three-ply paper just for the lav.

    Not sure if it's an advertiser's con or just a personal preference but I buy the cheapest I can get my hands on. It's in use for, oh, about thirty seconds at most and then chucked away so I don't want to pay much for it at all and don't understand why other people do. Must be a blind-spot.
  • ALIBOBSY
    ALIBOBSY Posts: 4,527
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    yeah alot of those cleaning ads get my goat. A few ads recently seem to imply you are a bad mum unless you use a particular product. I remember one where the child was sad in a fleece washed in ordinary powder/conditioner, but happy and smilely in the fleece that was oh so soft from comfort (or simular). plus those scaremongering ads about germs everywhere lol.

    Just the general atitude portrayed in most ads now. That you must have the best now, treat yourself, treat the kids etc.

    What about the ads by pampers that imply unless you use their nappies you will effect your childs development as they "need golden sleep" to help their brains. Come on!

    These ads pander to the whole idea that everything is about aquiring "stuff" and growing consumption, all so wrong.

    Also we live in a soft water area, I have never seen limescale in any kettle ever, so why do we still get calgon ads?

    ali x
    "Overthinking every little thing
    Acknowledge the bell you cant unring"

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