Nextel, Avril Lavigne and Other Over-Hyped Ripoffs

Advertising executives are geniuses at getting the general public to buy or endorse things they wouldn't normally need or like. They are adept at getting us to ignore the obvious and embrace useless inventions as if they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are a few things that are still popular today even though their pointlessness or overrated existence has already been pointed out. Expensive walkie talkies, tap water in a fancy bottle, and pop stars who insist they are rock/punk icons are just a few of the creations from advertising giants made to con us out of money and worthy attention.

Nextel phones

While some enjoy the general service that this company provides, others just adore the walkie talkie feature. It's this aspect of the phone that put Nextel on the map, and while it can make sense for construction workers or those who work in a loud environment, people tend to use this irritating feature in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons. The Nextel chirp and extremely loud conversations can be heard in banks, libraries, and in the general public, annoying everyone within a large radius and letting everyone hear the caller's business. Shoppers yards away hear that someone's husband didn't pick up dinner, or that someone's boss wants that report on his desk tomorrow. Twenty first century adults have been conned into using expensive walkie talkies, devices used when most of us were children and far too young for grown-up cell phones. Knock on texting all you want, but at least it's quiet and doesn't annoy the heck out of everyone around you.

Bottled water

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports on their website that bottled water isn't any safer than tap water, and "an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle". (1) Also, tap water has something that bottled water doesn't, according to the FDA website: tap water often contains fluoride. (2) Another drawback to the craze is all the leftover plastic bottles left by drinkers, and MSNBC reported in a related article that "the recycling rate for plastic soft drink bottles is around 30 percent", leaving most of the used bottles to be trashed or littered. (3) Therefore, bottled water consumption has negatively impacted the environment.

The tap water in my house doesn't taste very good, but I found out that the water from the drinking fountain at work is just as good as the bottled water I used to drink, and the water from my mom's refrigerator is tasty as well. Unless I don't have water handy with me, I'm not buying anymore bottled water.

Greatest hits CDs

As Bruce McCullouch yelled in a "Kids in the Hall" sketch, "Greatest hits albums are for housewives and little girls!" Die-hard fans would argue that you'd be better off just buying the original album, so you could get the right feel for the music as the artist intended you to hear it, and the songs left off on the greatest hits CD might be better than what was left on. Still, the collected hits of an artist on one CD definitely had an appeal before the internet changed everything for the music industry. With the ability to download mp3s and burn our own CDs, why rely on someone else's idea of a musician's or band's greatest hits? Make your own greatest hits, or mixes, and bypass the record company's idea of what you should consider your favorites.

Avril Lavigne

There's nothing wrong with having your own taste in music, but when a pop star who makes radio-friendly, safe hits markets herself as a punk/rock icon, it's just ridiculous and false. Just looking at Miss Avril would make someone think she makes hard rock, controversial lyrics and in your face attitudes. Instead, she sounds like Kelly Clarkson (a pop starlet), and her only edgy attributes is that she gives the finger, curses, and spits on people. Real rebel musicians like Joan Baez and Patti Smith have challenged all kinds of authority, changed attitudes about women in general, and actually wrote their own revolutionary music on their own. Avril is an example of a lamb in wolf's clothing, and people have bought into it and call her "punk" and a "rock star", rather than the pop star she actually is.

Baby Einstein

It's understandable that parents want their children to be intelligent, and will buy products that promise early education to give them a head start. Time.com reported that videos like "Baby Einstein" may actually hinder a child's language development. (4) "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," stated Dr. Dimitri Christakis, who led the research team. The article quoted pediatric expert Dr. Vic Strasburger as stating that interaction is key for infants in order to properly develop skills and intelligence, and that didn't mean a face talking from a video screen. The "Baby Einstein" videos capitalized on parents wanting to help educate their children, but they only serve as entertainment, and interfere with proper interaction.

We'll always have to put up with over advertised, over hyped inventions, but the trick is not to get pulled in, or to do our homework. Look past the hype, the loud chirps, the punk clothing, and the word "Einstein" in the packaging, and you'll see consumer rip offs, things that we really don't need or things that are just not what they seem.

SOURCES:

1 - "NRDC: Bottled Water FAQ" Revised September 12, 2007. (http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp)

2 - "Bottled Water: Better Than the Tap?" Anne Christiansen Bullers, July-August 2002. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA Consumer magazine (http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2002/402_h2o.html)

3 - "Plastic bottles pile up as mountains of waste" Miguel Llanos, MSNBC, March 3, 2005 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279230/)

4 - "Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All" Alice Park, August 06, 2007 (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html)