Ad·ver·tis·ing ˈ(advərˌtīziNG/ noun) - The art of ensuring that the ends justify the means.

Advertising first began on Madison Avenue, in New York; after the end of World War 2. Hundreds of thousands of men were coming home victorious, with the hopes of starting a family and a career. This was a HUGE market to take advantage of, and with no competition from Europe, Germany, or Japan; the United States was poised to set the path for the next industrial world.

In America, that path came in the way of the suburban dream: a house, a lawn, a car, two children, a dog, and a loving wife. It began innocently, as thousands of companies competed for the attention of this new market. Everything was fair game and with such limitless opportunity. Markets were created, seemingly out of thin air, thanks to the creation of credit cards and mortgages. It all seemed to make sense. However, sooner or later, the German and Japanese markets would rebound. Sooner or later, competition for natural resources across the world would increase. Sooner or later, the population would double.

This is where we are now, and why the lifestyle of the 1950s' and 1960s' are still being sold to us by advertisers, even though they bare no resemblance to reality. In my view, the products are becoming cheaper, the fantasies they sell are bordering insanity, and all the while the people on television seem to act as if nothing is wrong.

I wish our media would stop coddling us as if we were children: unable to handle the complexity of the real world. By promoting what they do, these companies are endorsing a culture of blissful ignorance. I want corporations and governments to be honest with us. 

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• Don't tell us your Apple iPads and iPhones are "alternative" to corporate America; when the Foxconn sweat-shops that manufacture your products have to put up nets to catch the weekly attempted-suicides by your workers. And don't tell us you are "green" when the facilities which process the Rare Earth Minerals are some of the leading cause of pollutants in China.
• Don't tell us your Natural Gas is cleaner than Coal or Oil, when we know for a fact that Fracking releases enormous amounts of Methane into the atmosphere, which is four-times more harmful than Carbon.
• Don't tell us your Cars are American Made, after you destroy two cities worth of industries just to ensure you remain profitable by importing parts from Asia and relocating your manufacturing plants to Mexico.
• Don't tell us your Bank cares about American progress: when it did everything it could to remove a provision established in 1933 known as Glass Steagall, thereby ensuring the 2008 economic collapse.
• And don't even get me started on the Politicians who let it all happen! And then they pay a media consultant millions of dollars to convince us that they're "different" than the other guy.

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Ok that's the end of my rant. The fact that I could go on like this for HOURS means that there is something seriously wrong with our media.