Last Wednesday when I was in the checkout line at Walgreen’s, a display caught my eye. You know, those displays tempting you to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase. Marketers are always trying to pick our pockets. And algorithms, whatever they are, are invisible seducers. Anyway, it was the title of the display that caught my attention, me a religious guy. “Advent Calendar.” Selling an Advent Calendar alongside People magazine, breath mints, cigarettes and other must haves? Looking closer, here’s the marketer’s description of the contents of the box: “24 days of chocolate ‘til Christmas.” So that’s Advent, chocolate? Stuff? Let me ask you three questions:
Where did the marketer come up with the idea there are 24 days in Advent? Is Advent over when you’ve eaten all the chocolates…or put away the nativity scene? Is America's media and consumer culture insidiously changing our understanding of Advent?
I’ll let it go at that...for now. Hope you’ll think about what Advent really means. “The (media, marketing) serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made” (Genesis 3:1). Prayer: “Let no false doctrine me beguile, let Satan not my soul defile” (Lutheran Service Book, 708:2).
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