Born To Shop

Walt Mueller:

Marketing works. It's worked for years. Today's marketing experts are bearing the fruit of the successful efforts of past generations of product evangelists. It's ingrained in the very fabric of who we are. Pedicini quotes branding-strategist Eli Portnoy: "Little kids are so status-conscious about clothing now, more than ever. It was a natural evolution for young college, teenage brands - Why not go after them younger and get them hooked into your brands?"

Contemporary Christians may pride themselves on the fact that there are no literal golden calves sitting in our midst. But the subtle draw of idolatry weaves itself in and through us without us ever knowing it. . . and we might not see it until we catch ourselves leafing longingly through the piles and piles of consumer catalogs that fill our mailboxes, feeling good when we're going to or at the mall, or when we allow our young to wear t-shirts emblazoned with "SHOPPING RULES!" or "BORN TO SHOP."

C.S. Lewis got it right when he wrote, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." That's where we need to live. It's where we must spend everything we have and everything we are.

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