What is “the choice of a new generation”? Do you know what “time” it is?

The answer to these questions bombard us every day and as college students, we are in the direct line of attack. I’m talking about advertising, and it is vicious!

We are barraged with images of “swooshes” that tell you that only with a certain shoe can you perform complex and astounding feats of sporting wonder. A specific brand of clothing with a boring white and red block tells everyone you paid too much for clothes. We are under attack from the world of advertising.

Unless you live on a true college budget and have to subsist on Ramen and bottled water, millions of dollars are spent on “swooshes,” shirts decorated with crocodiles and specific brand names of cola.

Would it surprise you to know that in blind taste tests, most vodka drinkers couldn’t distinguish between specific brands like Smirnoff, Absolut and others?

We, as a consumer society, take pride in the fact that we have Nike or Puma shoes, Tommy clothes, Victoria’s Secret underwear, and we work our way through school to attain the salaries to wear Prada, Versace and Armani.

In her book titled “Can’t Buy My Love”, Jean Kilbourne has broken down the changes in advertising over the last few years. Kilbourne states that in as few as five years, children have shifted their drink from milk to soda.

Many markets have redirected their marketing to children. In an ad for Cartoon Network, a picture of Flintstone’s own Bamm-Bamm is holding up Barney with a caption that states: “Only our kids have this much power over their parents.” Kilbourne also states that “online advertising targets children as young as four in an attempt to develop ‘brand loyalty’ as early as possible.”

You might be asking yourself why this is relevant.

For one thing, take a look at what you are spending on Hellman’s mayonnaise opposed to “Sparky’s Fave Mayo” (yes, there is no such product, but you get the idea), and how much those shoes cost you to walk all day as opposed to those no-names from Wally World that will do the same job just as well.

On a larger scale, this means that advertisers aren’t selling you their product when you see 12 commercials in a 30-minute period. It means that advertisers are selling you to their product’s producers. You are becoming the commodity and no longer are you the consumer.

Is this an attempt to advocate generic buying? No. This, as most of my other columns are, is an attempt to keep you well-informed and well-prepared to navigate the ad-beleaguered world that we find ourselves in. An informed consumer is a smart consumer!