Personal Finance Advice

The characters on television shows rarely have any money issues.  Once in a while they may gripe about the mom’s shopping habits or poke fun at dad running out and buying a sports car as the result of a midlife crisis, but for the most part there are not many serious financial issues present in primetime television.  Add to this the fact that plenty of actors online are dressed in expensive clothes, living in impeccable houses, and any viewer is bound to get a little jaded about their own financial situation.

You may not even notice that these things have any influence on you, but consider this: How many women actually knew who Minolo Blahnik was before Sex and the City, let alone wanted to actually own a pair of these expensive shoes? Television has introduced luxurious items to everyday people while slowly convincing people that these items aren’t necessarily extravagances.  Spending a month’s worth of grocery money on a designer purse would seem absurd to most people in theory, but when a popular character on a television show is shown waltzing around with the same designer purse it starts to slowly creep into the viewer’s head that maybe the purchase wouldn’t be all that silly.

Marketing professionals are smart people.  They pay to get these items featured on popular television shows knowing that the viewing audience may want to buy one after seeing it.  Think about the psychology behind this.  You identify with a certain character on TV.  This character has a certain item.  Subconsciously or consciously, you start craving the item too.  The character you identify with has one, why shouldn’t you?

This doesn’t even include commercials.  This is just within the actual episodes you watch and pay attention to.

Place a child in front of the TV and have him watch an hour of cartoons.  Next, take this same child to the toy store and ask what he wants to buy.  He’s going to gravitate toward one of two things:

1.  The items featured within the cartoons.

2.  The items featured on the commercials in between the cartoons.

Are adults much different? Most people would like to think that they are more savvy than a young child when it comes to being influenced by marketing, but the truth of the matter is that there are people much smarter than the average person figuring out how to get you to spend your money through the television shows you watch.

You’re getting entertained, but don’t think for a minute that you aren’t being sold something.

Before you go out and buy something that might be considered an extravagance you should examine why you actually want the item.  Do you think the Louis Vuitton emblem is gorgeous and that’s why you want luggage with “LV” all over it, or is it instead because the LV label indicates something else to you…something the television has taught you: LV luggage equals status.

Think for yourself.  You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save when you don’t pay attention to everyone telling you to go out and buy everything.