Can Americans Ignore Brands and Ads?

[hunter]

15. No television, so that advertising is of no consequence to me.

I eat simple foods, shop in thrift stores.

I have a star here. No ads. Drive an old car with a salvage title, and if I ever have to replace it, it will be another old car. Car advertisements of any sort are just noise to me.

Most advertisements are just noise to me.

Frankly, it's not what I'm boycotting (nearly everything), it's what I do decide to buy. I have this rule of sorts: if it's not going to last a century, and it's not something (vegetable) I'm going to eat or was with, then it's simply not on my shopping list. Everything else becomes a gift of fortune, something I'll find used, or in the trash, or something I can repair or make.

My wife is not quite like that. She does enjoy shopping but has some environmental awareness above that of the "average" American "consumer." I never wanted to be a "consumer" and I've done all right.

But I'm probably not going to convince my wife we can live without a refrigerator... I tell her it's easy and then you can avoid entire aisles in the supermarket, but she's not buying it.