Questions to Ponder:
1. What sorts of commercial images do you usually see of food on television or print ads?
2. What do images of new apartments for sale usually look like?
3. What do images of new clothes or makeup usually involve?
4. What are the differences between these images and the products you eventually use?
5. Do you enjoy advertising images?
6. Do you enjoy watching commercials on TV?
7. Do you like looking through catalogs or fashion magazines?
8. Do you remember the first time you bought fast food from McDonalds or some other fast food chain? Did the food you unwrapped look the same as the food in the pictures? What was your reaction? Did you care?
9. When you buy toys or products that have been beautifully photographed and presented in commercials on the box, what do you feel when you see the actual product?
10. What would you think if you interviewed a job candidate and she said, "Well, I left that firm because I couldn't stand being in the same room with my boss. He disgusted me, and to stay another day would've pushed me over the edge."
11. What would you think if you went to interview for a job and the interviewer said, "The main thing you need to know about this company is that we don't like liberals."
12. What do you feel about Company X when you see these two statements:
13. Company X is spending millions of dollars this year to reduce its environmental footprint.
14. Company X makes hundreds of millions of dollars producing products that overflow landfills and pollute rivers.
15. How often do you tell people the absolute truth when they ask for your opinion?
16. At what point is it okay to present yourself as nicer than you are? At what point is it not okay?
17. What is the difference between ‘presenting your best self’ and ‘lying about who you are’?
18. Do we expect to be lied to, when it comes to buying products?
19. Is telling lies or bending the truth acceptable in advertising and politics?
20. Do we expect commercials to tell us one thing when we know the truth is probably another? If so, why?
21. Do you think the image of things is becoming more important than how they really are?
22. Is it important to be able to bend the truth with people?
23. Is it possible to maintain integrity when bending the truth?
24. Do you think lying is more interesting or attractive than telling the truth?
25. Do you like living in a world filled with advertising and beautiful images?
26. Would you like to live in a world where nobody lied to each other? Do you think such a world would be less beautiful?
27. Would you like to live in a world where appearances were less important?
28. Is advertising absolutely indispensable in a capitalist economy?
29. If selling = lying and advertising = lying, then would you say lying is indispensible to a capitalist economy?
Discussion Question: What would our culture look like without the packaging?
