What to Buy? -- Consumerism Week 7

What are we supposed to spend our money on? What’s worth it and what’s not?
Advertising is full of discourses that claim to inform us about how we should be making such choices. In class, we mentioned discourses like The Material Good Life and The Body Perfect, both of which inform us about what is “worth” spending money on. Yet understanding the way consumerism produces so much discontent, requires understanding the ways that we value and criticize our choices about what we spend our money on. Consider the following…

Save money? Live Better?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbucVty-_xs
In this advertisement Wal-Mart informs us that we can “save money and live better.” However, is what they’re saying, “save your money and don’t spend to live better,” or "spend your money at Wal-Mart so you can live better?” Which discourses about consumerism are being used in this advertisement, and for what purpose? Wal-Mart clearly wants us to spend our money at Wal-Mart, that’s why they spent the time and money creating this advertisement. So what is the idea they are trying to sell us? Do people who care about “what’s really important” not spend money on unimportant things? Does this advertisement suggests what should be identified as a “thing” that is important versus a “thing” that isn’t?
It seems this advertisement is implying that by shopping at Wal-Mart, by spending less for what we “need,” we will then have money left over to spend on those things that “really matter,” like our families (and summer vacations). In other words, there's a "right" way to spend your money, and that means spending less, so that we can then spend more. Does feeling good about spending your money require that you spend less money on unimportant things or more money on important things? If you spend on the wrong thing, do you not have the "correct" priorities?

Be Smart?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XewCSdHnvTs
You’re only as smart as what you buy. That’s the motto in this advertisement.
In other words, dumb people don’t spend their money in the “right” way. Not only does this advertisement clearly define “smart” for us, but it helps us understand the “right” way to spend our money, the right way to be happy.
What does this advertisement suggest smart is? Which dominant discourses are used to teach us what smart is? Does a smart person buy the “right” product? Do they spend their money on things that are “worth-while?”
This advertisement reinforces the discourse that buyers remorse, something we ALL experience at some point, is most likely related to our intelligence, to our making the “correct” choices. If we save our money buying a Hyundai instead of another car, we are making smart choices that we will not regret.
Of course, most of us WILL make choices we regret, so how do the discourses used in this commercial likely leave us feeling about ourselves?