LegendaryLife Blog

There is a real reason why I don’t have a television, telephone nor miss them… I grew increasingly tired of the constant brainwashing of marketers trying to convert an unknown want into a NEED.

Want vs need

We NEED food, fire, shelter and in my case, Internet – everything else is bonus as far as I am concerned. What marketers do is convert wants, such as the latest packaged food, value meal item or health craze into a need to their profit and your detriment.

Marketing isn’t all bad

Marketing done to promote good habits, positivity and happiness I am all for, but those used to sell a product that doesn’t work, lie to their “captive audience” or promote what is incredibly unhealthy behaviors should be sent on way plane ticket to the front lines of the latest war zone.

Some marketing is good, like telling you it’s tax season but the vast majority (sadly) of promoted stuff is simply mindless junk that interferes directly with leading a productive lifestyle. Imagine how much you COULD accomplish in your life if, instead of spending a few hours a night watching your favorite shows, that you used this time more wisely improving your life and those around you. Well, this is what I realized a few years ago and have never looked back! Same goes with radio, magazines, commercial books etc… if you cut the crap, your left with gold if you are willing to allow your mind to think for itself.

Don’t believe me about the advertising out there?

Here is but a fractional glimpse at what you are being told without even knowing it, and this is just articles published in the last week from one news agency!

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/popup?id=3221225&contentIndex=1&page=1

Doctored magazine covers (they do this on inside pages as well as advertisers btw), where the image you see is trying to convey a necessary need that you didn’t know you had. For instance, famous people being “slimmed” or “bulked” based on what the magazine wishes to promote for their own gain or those of their advertisers.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3201973&page=1

Although completely non-scientific, I find it ironic that people who have way too much experience in alcohol and claim they can differentiate one brand from another ALL AGREE that the brand they love the most (with associated cost) they actually HATE when blindfolded. This shows how powerful marketing can be, overriding your own brains perception and senses. Now, extend this to other foods like McBarf (and other unhealthy fast foods), Cars etc… Powerful stuff huh?

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3222527&page=1

“The CDC reports that nearly 71 percent of American men are overweight or obese. ” Huh? And the weight loss industry that does such a phenomenal job taking advantage of woman with their dis-information campaigns will now be responsible for doing the same to men? I still don’t understand why the government has done so little to stop this entire industry from essentially brainwashing the vast proportion of the populations they “invade” with their propaganda that the only way to loose weight is to buy their products that don’t work! If you are too “busy” to spend 10 minutes cooking your own meals, you need to review your life, not send up to 50$ a day eating mostly un-nutritious processed foods which will only increase the potential for you actually BECOMING what you are avoiding.

What is the solution?

Well, I have found it, drop out! I don’t care if xyz celebrity stubbed their toe this morning but I do care about what is going on in Sudan. I don’t care about my love handles (not that I have much of any) but I do care about how to cook a nutritious meal for my family and friends. I don’t care if I spent the last three hours working on myfoodcount.com but I do care that I was interrupted by a telemarketer. Does this make sense to you or is it just me? In either case, the less I participate with this, the more productive I become and the happier I am with what I do have. I have more time to learn about the world around me as well and cross-reference news to get all 3 sides of the story.

…but you have ads on your site!

Yes, myfoodcount.com also has a marketplace selling things that IMPROVE your life and many other features, these are used to continue supporting the site (ei: pay the bills). They are not blaring (if I find them to be so, I remove them). Amazon links are also double lined – so as to not confuse a valid link from one based on selling as well (I didn’t have to do this but I chose to). I also cannot choose what text ads show up on this site nor is spending my days filtering ad content a good use of time – I have higher priorities. They are mostly always placed in the same places so they are easily ignored if you so choose. Overall, the message behind myfoodcount.com is non-biased health information regardless of your social, economic or geographical situation so I try my best to keep things in this spirit. I can only hope that this spirit gets through to the users and visitors of this site.

The Bottom Line

Marketing that promotes detrimental products or services should be banned outright with incredibly high personal and business penalties to those who break them.