Free advertising

What is with these people being excited at the opportunity to make commercials for various products? I am confused.

First off, the very point of advertising is to create sales without using direct person to person contact. However, salesmen themselves typically have a designated role; creating a need where one did not previously exist. Seriously, which of the following are NEEDS and which are WANTS?

Television programming, cable or dish programming, designer jeans, Doritos, a Toyota, any car, Manicured nails, a full head of hair, "male enhancement" drugs, a trip to Disneyland, a video camera, a computer...

The list could go on and on. Those are all nice, things I might enjoy...well, except the manicured nails and any medication that relates to sexuality...or the full head of hair...or the trip to Disneyland...or a Toyota...or designer jeans...but the point is, most of the things I DO own and/or purchase are on some level luxury items. They are things I want but do not need.

Yet people are very, very hooked on commercials. While hacking my lungs out over the Christmas holiday I saw a commercial for a program dedicated to...wait for it...the funniest commercials of 2007. Yep. Some genius decided it was a worthwhile, watchable show to just watch and talk about commercials for a half hour or hour...I don't know how long the program was as, surprisingly, I elected not to dedicate a portion of my life to watching a commercial-interrupted show about commercials.

On some level...and it is not a very deep one...I find the idea of watching that show idiotic and absurd. I wish it was the stupidest commercial-related thing I have come across lately. I wish it was remotely close to being the stupidest commercial-related thing. However, in the theatre of the absurd and of the brain-dead consumers, I have found something even worse, less intelligent, and devoid of wise actions.

Namely, several brands are offering their customers the chance to make their own commercial.

Yep, the good marketing people now want us, the consumers, to do the work for them. Not only are they going to try to convince U.S. Americans (thank you Miss Teen Tennessee or wherever she was from for that gem of a phrase...see, I will advertise for her...) to use their brand...they are going to have US come up with THEIR marketing strategy!

And people are excited about this. Wake up, morons. You are doing for free what normally is something the brand pays millions and millions of dollars for. Look up what ad designers get paid. But you...you are willing to do it so people you have never met will see the name of a person they never heard of in front of an ad for a product they may never purchase. Well done. Way to make the world a better place. You could improve it even more simply by stopping your habit of breathing. Maybe then you could make a commercial for an undertaker.